Prove yourself!
by Leto
Summary: It's a few years after the adventures of 02, the kids have grown up, but are now being called back into action... and must compete with each other for the right to see their Digimon again.
1. New generation

I'm aware this clashes with what happens in late 02, but, who cares? It's fanFICTION, right? And it's not like I've seen those episodes anyway, sooo... ^_^. 

POV stands for Point Of View, of course. ^_^. This fic is a sequel to "Moving On" but the Intro covers the basics from that fic, so there are spoilers for that fic, in other words. ^_^. 

And please don't be put off by the existence of New Characters. The bulk of the fic won't centre around them. I also swap between past and present tense sometimes, although I try not to in the same section. I don't know why I do that, I just can't seem to help it. ^_^;; It's a lot easier to write in present tense for character POVs, for example. 

**Prove yourself!**  
by [Leto][1]  
**Chapter one - New generation**

--Joe's POV-- 

I'm Joe Kido. I was once one of the digidestined who saved the world, but that was a long time ago. Now I'm studying medicine in London while my friends are in Japan. I haven't been to the digital world much; only once in the last year, when TK and Kari came on a European holiday and opened the gate for me. 

I would like to see Gomamon more often but sometimes I think I've outgrown him; Digimon don't age, and it's almost like Gomamon was designed to be the partner of the 12-year-old me... when I last saw him, we were kind of awkward with each other. Maybe if we saw each other more often, it wouldn't be a problem. 

All of us have grown up a lot. Cody's in his last year of high school, Yolei and Sora both study at university and work part-time at Sora's mother's flower shop. Tai is some sort of businessman and he's recently become engaged to his girlfriend Terri. Mimi's a botanist (she goes to digiworld, picks up unusual plant specimens, and then gets famous in the real world because nobody else has ever seen them before - typical Mimi!) who still lives in America, now with Michael. Apparently she's expecting her first child soon. 

Matt is doing a computer course at the same university as Sora. Izzy - or Koushiro, I'm supposed to call him now; he and TK abandoned their childhood nicknames, but I can never think of them as anything but - goes to a different college, further away from the others, but he also lives in the digital world part-time. Ken also studies but lives in the digiworld. It's kind of strange. All the other digidestined visit the digiworld quite often but Izzy, Ken and Davis actually live there for more time than they spend in the real world. 

I write to Sora pretty regularly, and that is how I get the latest digidestined news, but it's kind of sad that I don't really stay in touch with anyone else. We lose connection so easily... 

But apparently, strange things have been happening lately. A week ago, there was a huge worldwide storm. It reminded me of the weather freakouts caused by Digimon in the real world, and then yesterday I got another letter from Sora. 

The digital gate has *closed*. Nobody can get through any more, for the first time in years. Ken and Izzy were both at lectures or something at the time, but Davis was *in* digiworld and nobody has been able to get through to him. Nobody knows if he is alright. Everyone is very worried that they'll never see Davis or their Digimon again. 

But, for once, I'm not the one out of the loop - I've just seen something quite incredible... 

--General POV-- 

A young man with a briefcase steps through the doors of the train and looks for a seat. He stops, a usually calm face suddenly registering shock. He is looking at three children who sit, slumped in their seats, with toy monsters on their laps. 

Very *familiar* toys. The man finds a seat, positioning himself to keep watch on the children. The oldest, a redheaded girl, cradles a large toy in the shape of a flower-creature. The second oldest is a boy with dark features, and he is holding a small, oddly shaped creature, difficult to liken to any real animal or plant. The youngest is a blonde, a girl with a large tadpole-like toy on her lap. 

As the young man watches these toys, he is certain he sees the flower move on its own - just a little - but definitely a twitch not caused by the movement of the train. He did not need any convincing though; the other toys were proof enough on their own, he recognises them. 

They are Digimon. 

The man smiles slightly. The children look tired, and their Digimon are convincingly still, for the most part - odd-looking dolls, but not anything that would arouse suspicion. He recognises that disguise as one he used himself once. 

He forgets his own tiredness and decides that returning to his home can wait a little longer. When the children get off at a station a little further along the line, Joe follows them. 

--Adrienne's POV-- 

What a day! We don't even know who or what we're looking for, it's so stupid. I guess we just have to keep trying. We're never gonna beat our enemies otherwise, and there's nothing more important than beating those scum. 

It still feels weird being in the real world again after so long. I thought we were in digiworld for, like, a couple of months, but when we came back, it was like only a few hours had passed! Tooooo weird. 

We've been walking around all day, and I'm so glad that we just got the chance to sit down. But now we have to walk home. It sucks. If we didn't have to keep our Digimon secret, Mom could be driving us around, but I'd rather have the freedom to talk to our Digimon. 

I don't know why we can't let people know we have Digimon anyway but Nate said it's not a good idea, and he's usually right. Anyway, 'cos there are only three of us - Nathan, me, and an annoying little sister - anyone's opinion is made pretty important. 

Anyway, right now I'm a little worried, I swear this Asian guy is following us. I mean, he doesn't look like a sleaze or something but I think it's a bit *too much* of a coincidence that he got off at the same stop as us, followed us out of the station, walked down this street and down this little side lane after us. I came down here to try to shake him off, but there he is, still behind us. All my mother's warnings, beware of strange men, they're flashing in my head. But I have Floramon with me, so I'm not *too* scared. 

"You think he's following us?" whispers Nate, in his slightly brusque accent. 

"Walk a little faster," I hiss to the others. 

"I don't like this," wails Amy. I swear, my sister has no discretion at all. But there's nobody else around now, just us and this creepy guy. He sees us hesitate and hears what Amy says, and seems to come to some sorta conclusion. He speeds up, he's coming to talk to us. Floramon stiffens in my arms. 

--General POV-- 

"Excuse me," said Joe, "I know you know I've been following you, and I'm sorry if I scared you. The thing is, I recognised that you were carrying Digimon, and I wanted to talk to you." 

Adrienne, who had relaxed slightly at his polite tone, stiffened at the mention of Digimon. 

"D-Digimon?" said Amy, a little too loudly, "what are Digimon?" 

"Yeah, what are Digimon?" asked the Digimon who was riding on her head - an Otamamon - "we're defuntly not Digimon!" 

Nathan rolled his eyes and Adrienne slapped her forehead with one hand. 

"Relax," said Joe, smiling a little, "I know all about Digimon. I was one of the original digidestined." 

Adrienne's face brightened. "Really?! Is your name Joe?" 

"It sure is. How did you know about me?" 

Adrienne and Nathan gave each other huge grins, and Amy bounced up and down. 

"It's him! It's him!" said Adrienne happily, "we didn't even have to look for him, he found us!" 

"We were LOOKING for you!" said Amy accusingly, "where WERE you?!" 

Joe sweatdropped. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were looking for me. To be honest, I didn't even know you existed until about twenty minutes ago! Would you care to tell me a little about yourselves?" 

"Okay," said Adrienne, "we're all Londoners, well, Nate was born some place else but he's ALMOST got the British accent down." 

"There is nothing wrong with my accent." 

"Anyways, I'm Adrienne Forrester, 13 years old, and this is my totally annoying sister Amy. She's 9 but she acts about 5." 

"I do NOT, you shut up Adrienne or I'm telling!" 

"Stop saying that. You even said it in digiworld, when there was nobody to tell." 

"Huh!" 

"And this is Nathan - he's 11. He goes to Amy's school, so that's how we know each other. About a week ago, there'd been this hugeous storm all day long, so I went to pick up Ames from school about a week ago, and Nate was waiting by the gate and then when we were all in the same vicinity, a huge thunderclap came down and zapped us into digiworld!" 

"Could you help us, please?" asked Nathan, "The Great Enlightened One told us you could help us." 

"Woah, woah, back up a little," said Joe, "I'd be happy to help you if I can. What is it you want me to do? And who is this 'Great Enlightened One'?" 

"He is the guardian of the digital world," said Adrienne, in a respectful tone, "he knows a great deal about Digimon and he has been helping us." 

"Is he - is his name Gennai? Is he an old, short guy with squinty eyes?" 

"No, he's a tall young man with spiky burgundy hair and brown hair," said Nathan. 

"And a cape, and goggles!" added Amy. 

"And he's reaaaally cute," finished Adrienne. 

Goggles? thought Joe. No doubt about it... "Does he have a Digimon partner named Veemon?" 

"Yeah, that's right!" 

"Veemon's really cool!" 

"He can digivolve into DIFFERENT Digimon using the Magical Orbs of Digital Armour!" 

"That's part of the Great Enlightened One's power!" 

It took a lot of effort to keep from laughing, although the thought of Davis wearing a cape, or of ANYONE thinking of that goggle head as some mystical source of guidance, brought Joe very close to it. 

"Okay kids," he said, "let's sit down on this bench and you can tell me just what's going on." 

"I'm no kid," protested Amy, but was happy to sit down. 

"Joe, I'd like to introduce you to our Digimon," said Nathan, "this is Pagumon, in-training Digimon. His Rookie is Spritemon, his Champion is Feathermon, his Ultimate is Garnetmon." 

"Yes, I've met Pagumon before," said Joe drily, "it wasn't the most enjoyable experience of my life." 

Pagumon stuck his tongue out. "Well, who cares what you think!" 

"Pagumon!" hissed Nathan, covering his Digimon's mouth, "don't be so impolite!" 

"I'm Floramon," said Floramon, as Adrienne opened her mouth to introduce her, "I have the su-perb attack Rain of Pollen! It's really useful, don't you think so? I digivolve into the fabulous Petalmon! It's really fun! I'm so glad I got to meet Adrienne! But we haven't figured out how to use her crest yet! Only Spritemon got to go Ultimate so far, that's unfair, don't you think so?" 

"What -" began Joe. 

"I love the feeling of digivolving! I want to do it again and again! Did you know that there are some Digimon throughout history who have even reached a level beyond Ultimate? Isn't that WEIRD? Do you think I could try it? I think I'd have to get Adrienne's crest to glow first." 

"Well -" 

"I bet I turn into something pretty, don't you think so? Adrienne has the crest of Authority so I bet if she's even MORE bossy she can make it work, don't you think so?" 

Joe blinked. "Adrienne, you certainly must have had quite a task keeping her quiet in public." 

Adrienne rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips - a gesture that was to become familiar. "You're not kidding. She just has these annoying moments of verbal diarrhoea." 

Floramon made a face. "You're saying I talk too much, aren't you? Well, it isn't true you know! I just have a lot to say, and isn't it better to say what's on your mind?" 

"I guess it depends on whether you have a mind or not," said Pagumon, and Floramon smacked him on the head (or body). 

"The crest of Authority, huh..." muttered Joe, "it's been a while since I heard anything about crests. What are the other two crests?" 

"Mine's supposed to be Integrity," said Nathan, his dark face reddening a little, "I don't know how I got it to work. Luck, I guess." 

"You're too modest," said Adrienne. 

"Someone has to be," said Pagumon, "seein' how everyone else on this team seems to have a big head." 

"You included, y'big head," said Floramon. "Yer nothing BUT a big head! Well, not THAT big, seeing as you're just an in-training..." 

Otamamon cleared her throat shyly. "Excuse me, can I say something too? Nobody introduced ME." 

"That's because Adrienne and her Digimon talk too much," frowned Amy. 

"I know who you are," said Joe, smiling at Otamamon, "my friend Mimi once sang at a castle full of Otamamon and Gekomon." 

"Ohhh!" squeaked Otamamon, "you mean you know PRINCESS MIMI, the beautiful singer who woke up Lord Shogungekomon?" 

"I sure do. Were you there at the time? I visited the castle too, so maybe we've even met before." 

"No, I was only hatched a little while ago, but EVERY Otamamon knows about PRINCESS MIMI. She's the savior of musical amphibi-mon-kind!" 

Joe sweatdropped. "Kind of a strange thing to be famous for, but okay. So do you digivolve into Gekomon?" 

"No..." said Otamamon, with a slightly confused look, "I dunno why, but because I digivolve with Amy's help, I seem to turn out different, and my Champion is called Webmon. If Amy's crest of Charity glows, maybe I can be a Shogungekomon too! Wouldn't that be just AMAZING?" 

"All this talking is BORING," said Amy suddenly, standing up, "can't we just hurry up and finish things here so we can save digiworld and start living normal lives again? I have a ballet performance in two weeks." 

"We KNOW, Amy," said Adrienne impatiently. 

"You only talk about it every day," muttered Pagumon. 

"Well, Mr Joe didn't know," said Amy defensively, crossing her arms. 

"I bet he didn't want to know either," said Pagumon. 

"I must apologise for Pagumon," said Nathan, "he's not as rude as this when he's in his Rookie form. Tell me Joe, is it normal for him to be only an in-training Digimon after reaching Ultimate?" 

"Sure it's normal," said Joe, "digivolving to Ultimate level takes up a lot of energy the first couple of times. Our Digimon did it too. I'm sure he'll be Spritemon again soon, just make sure you feed him a lot." 

"Hear that!" chirped Pagumon, "lots and lots and lots of food! I like this guy after all!" 

***

It was growing dark; Nathan said his parents would worry if he wasn't home before dark, so they started to walk in what Nathan said was the direction of his house. 

"I usually catch the train to university," said Joe, "but I have a car, perhaps I could drive you guys around so you wouldn't have to walk everywhere? I'd be glad to help you when I'm not studying or working... actually, that doesn't happen too often... what did you come to the real world to look for, anyway? Are there any bad Digimon around here?" 

"We came to look for YOU," said Adrienne, "the Great Enlightened One said that we had to go find the old digidestined if we wanted to defeat our latest enemies. Even Garnetmon, who's an Ultimate, was no match for these new opponents. He told us how to open the gate back to this world, and he said to assemble you all and bring you back." 

"How would Davis know something like that..." wondered Joe under his breath. 

"We came back home 'cos we wanted to see our parents, but also 'cos the Great Enlightened One told us that a digidestined named Joe Kido lived in London, so we've been looking for you for the last three days!" 

"Why did you want to find me first?" 

"Well," admitted Nathan, "none of us know how to speak Japanese, so we didn't know how we'd be able to even find our way around in Japan, let alone find people..." 

"We wouldn't even know how to ask someone their name!" said Amy. 

"But isn't Da- uhh, the 'Great Enlightened One', isn't he Japanese too?" 

"Yeah, but he spoke English to us," said Adrienne. 

"Not very well though," added Floramon. 

"Don't say disrespectful things of him," said Adrienne, poking her. JOe rolled his eyes; it sounded like Davis had been filling these kids' heads with nonsense. 

"So you want me to take you to Japan?" asked Joe, "do you really think your parents would be happy for you to go to another country with a strange man? Do you have enough money for the air fares? And I have another field work session tomorrow, not to mention a test next week..." 

Adrienne rolled her eyes. "No, silly, I didn't mean we fly to a totally different country. That would mean we had to tell our parents!" 

"So what did you have in mind, just *magically* transport us to Japan in a second?" 

"Exaaactly!" 

Joe blinked. 

"Nathy's Ultimate Digimon is reaaaally cool," said Amy happily, "even if Pagumon is reaaaally annoying!" 

"Bite me," said Pagumon. 

"Garnetmon has power over space," said Nathan, "he can teleport us all to Japan, we could find the digidestined, and be in the digital world before tea-time!" 

Adrienne put her hands on her hips. "You said you're working at a hospital tomorrow? In that case, tell us when you finish so we can meet you there and leave ASAP!" 

"Uhh, are you sure about that? I finish my shift at 2am." 

Adrienne, still with her hands on her hips, tossed her head. "So, do you care about the digital world at all? You might get the chance to see your Digimon and your old friends again! And if they're in trouble, wouldn't you want to help them? The Great Enlightened One said you had the crest of Reliability, well, it sure doesn't look that way to me!" 

Joe put up his hands defensively. "Hey, I didn't mean I'm not planning to help you guys, I'm just pointing out that it might be difficult for you to come meet me at 2am!" 

"Can't you get OFF your shift early?" 

"I suppose I could take a sickie and just do a single shift. I'd be off by five thirty then." 

"Perfect, we'll see you then! Pagumon, hurry up and get eating so you can be ready to digivolve to Ultimate!" 

"That's the sort of order I like!" 

Joe sweatdropped. "Wait a second, we have to think about this. If it's 5:30pm here, then it's... uh... ohh, I was never a math person, I wish Izzy were here... umm... GMT plus 9, isn't it? That's... two thirty in the morning in Japan." 

Adrienne sweatdropped. "Your double shift sounds fine, 2am it is. Good thing we're on school holidays. We'll just have to sleep during the day and climb out the window at night or something." 

"Thanks for asking the rest of us what we wanted to do, Adrienne," said Amy sarcastically, "you're so bossy." 

"If you have a better idea, I'd like to hear it." 

Amy didn't. 

--Kari's POV-- 

I just can't seem to sleep. I had another weird dream which reminds me of that *really* weird one I had a week ago. I can't help thinking about that dream a lot. TK said I've seemed distracted lately. Well, I can't help that - it felt so REAL, and I'm worried about Gatomon. 

The digital gate wouldn't close suddenly unless something went wrong, and if the digiworld's in some kind of trouble, and Gatomon's trapped in there without me... she's only a Champion... 

But in my dream, I was in digiworld, and I saw the symbol of the crest of light, a glowing pink symbol hovering in the air in front of me. I took a step toward it and it moved forward - so I followed it. 

It took me right to Davis, who was sitting, looking kind of small and alone, in a big, deserted area. Veemon sat beside him, the two with identical glum expressions. 

"Hey, Davis," I said, but somehow it wasn't *me* talking, it was the crest of light. 

"Kari!" he said, jumping up, happy to see me, "how did you get here? Is the gate open again? Do you have any idea what happened? Where's Gatomon?" 

"Davis, you're the only one who can help the three chosen ones," I said, but again, it wasn't really me talking. 

"Three chosen ones?" he repeated, "what are you talkin' about, Kari?" 

"Authority, Integrity and Charity," I said, "When Integrity's coat of arms reacts, they can open the gate to this world on the point of what used to be Spiral Mountain's peak. Davis, they need back-up. Tell them about us. Tell them how to find us." 

"Kari, I still don't know what you're talkin' about. Can'tcha talk clearly?" 

"Please guide the three children," I insisted, with the same strange feeling that it wasn't *me* talking, "Davis, help them and tell them to get us." 

"But Kari, I don't understand -" 

"If you need answers, Gennai's old house - where Koushiro was staying - has a collection of old prophecies and collected data." 

"Prophecies about what? Kari, what's going on? Kari, where's everyone else? Why're you tellin' this to me? Kari? KARI!" 

I could feel myself being sucked back into the pink light of my crest, and suddenly I was myself again, and I was scared. I reached out my hand to him. "Davis! Help me!" I called, and he made a grab for my hand, but the last thing I saw was his brown eyes, full of confusion and concern, and then he disappeared completely. 

I was floating in the pink light and I kept thinking I could see Gatomon out of the corner of my eye, but every time I turned, she wasn't there. Then I heard her say "Kari, you can't see me, your light has faded". And *then* I woke up, and there was just a *glimmer* of pink light in the room around me. When I blinked it was gone, so I might have imagined that part, but... 

Weird things have happened to me often enough so that I'm not so sure that was just a dream. It was a pretty specific one if it was. And now I've just had another one; all our Rookie Digimon, and Gatomon, were standing in front of glass walls, and their partners, including me, were on the other side. Everyone was pounding on or attacking the glass, trying to get through to the other side. Then this huge dark cloud swept over us... and I woke up to hear TK in the next room, snoring loud enough to wake the dead. 

And that's where I am now. I check the clock - 3:02am. Get a grip, Kari, I tell myself sternly, stranger things have happened, and you need your beauty sleep. 

But I am worried about digiworld. Somehow I always felt so connected to it, even before I'd even been there. It doesn't feel right at all to be locked out. I remember at the end of our first adventure, with the eight of us fighting Apocalymon, I was so sure we were going to come back, because I just felt that connection to Digimon, and knew I couldn't be trapped out of it for long. 

Now I don't feel any such confidence, and I just can't help remembering that awful dark cloud in the dream I just had... 

--General POV-- 

Davis lay flat in the tall grass, heart pounding, hoping, *hoping* that he'd flattened himself quickly enough. He heard the tell-tale whistle overhead. Veemon, by his side, was breathing heavily. After a moment, the Digimon sat up uncertainly and looked all around. 

"He'sh gone. I guesh he didn't see us this time." 

"Yeah," said Davis, "I can't believe how quickly he snuck up on us like that." 

"Their shurveillence is getting better, Davish," said Veemon, worried, "what are we gonna do?" 

Davis sat back and groaned. "Ohhh, I dunno, Veemon. It's startin' to feel like every Digimon around here's an enemy. I HATE sittin' around here feelin' so useless, I should be out there tryin' to SAVE the digiworld!" 

"It'll be better when your arm'sh better," said Veemon reassuringly, "I think it's starting to heal." 

"Yeah... I know one thing, I'm not gonna try to take on Steeldramon single-handed again!" 

"Good idea," agreed Veemon, wincing at the memory of *that* particular fight. 

The two friends sat for a while, and Davis pounded the ground with his good hand, frustrated. 

"This STINKS, Veemon!" he shouted, "why'd we have to get stuck here like this? What if we never see our friends again? All we have to go on is that weird encounter with Kari, and that was so long ago, I don't even know if it really happened!" 

"The others will come, Davish," said Veemon, feeling rather helpless, "nobody eshpects you to save the digital world all on your own." 

"Veemon, it's been MONTHS since those kids left!" said Davis, "I bet they forgot all about us and the digiworld. They've probably just decided to stay in their world with their families, when it's safe." 

"Don't lose hope, Davish," said Veemon, "I'm sure they'll come through. You know they're not like that!" 

Davis sighed. "I just wanna go HOME. This isn't any fun any more." 

Veemon didn't say anything, just patted his knee. 

"C'mon Davish," he said, "let's get up and try to find a safe place to spend the night." 

"Not many safe places left," sighed Davis, but he got up. The two walked along in silence for a while, then Davis suddenly blurted: "I never even got to see my own nephew!" 

"Nephew? What's a nephew?" 

"June's kid, remember? I was gonna go visit her in the hospital on the day this stupid gate closed! How come those kids can go through but I can't?!" 

"They do have different digivice-things." 

"It's just not fair." 

"I know." 

"My family must be really worried by now. They've probably given up hope of ever finding me. I wonder what the others told them." 

"Maybe you haven't been gone all that long, really? What if there's another time difference between worlds?" 

"That should be reassuring, but it's not really," said Davis, "makes me feel kinda like I don't really exist any more." 

Veemon nodded, and the two walked side-by-side through the long grass, both keeping a close eye out for any sort of enemy. 

   [1]: mailto:leto@nysa.cx



	2. Come together

Let's pretend that in the English dub, they are actually speaking Japanese. ^_^;; I wasn't quite sure how to go about it, otherwise. ^_^. Also, I really haven't seen the movie or anything like that, so I'm not sure about the whole crest thing. If I'm inaccurate, who really cares. ^_^;

**Prove yourself!**  
by [Leto][1]  
**Chapter Two - Come together**

--Sora's POV--

WHY did the gate have to close at the one time when all our Digimon were on the other side? I mean, I know Matt often has Gabumon come to hang out in the real world, Hawkmon and Biyomon sometimes help sort orders after-hours in the store, Ken and Koushiro spend at least half their time in digiworld anyway... 

But no, it happened so that most of us were separated. And I am worried about Davis; if something is going wrong, what can he do on our own? And our Digimon will be helpless because they can't digivolve with us. 

Oh, Bi... I was just starting to think you would always be in my life, that we'd always be able to see each other regularly, that any time I felt down or needed a friend, you'd fly up to me with a huge welcoming smile on your face, always so excited to see me... 

And to think of you maybe hurt, maybe wondering why I don't come... oh, Biyomon, it's even worse than the time the Digimon Emporer took over digiworld and I was left behind because I didn't have the right digivice; instead, I'd have to sit in class and hope, hope that you'd survived another day, that you hadn't been caught yet, that you were safe... 

Because now there's this sudden new fear - what if digiworld doesn't exist? That sounds so ridiculous, it CAN'T be true, the love between Biyomon and I has to be real, it has to survive, but... Koushiro said that for all he could find of it, it's like digiworld doesn't exist any more. So I'm afraid. 

In the meantime though, there's work to be done. I can hide my frightened feelings behind a smile as I help customers decide what they're looking for. I go to unlock the shop and start unpacking some things. There is a knock on the door. 

"Sorry!" I call, "we don't open for another twenty min-oh!" 

I see who it is. What a total surprise! "JOE!" I shout, and jump into his arms. He laughs and hugs me back.

Weird how happy I am to see him, but it's been so long! We've been exchanging letters for about a year now, but he never mentioned he was coming. He's just the same Joe, looking so reliable and strong and - well, I won't say handsome, I keep remembering him as a 12-year-old with glasses that kept slipping off his nose, and that ridiculous haircut... but he doesn't look too bad, although kind of tired. 

I can't keep the smile off my face and for a moment the burden of worrying about my friends in digiworld is lightened. 

"Sora, how have you been?" he asks, "you look like you haven't been sleeping well." 

"So do you," I reply instantly, a little embarassed that it's that obvious. 

"Well, I've just come from a sixteen hour shift!" 

"Sixteen HOURS?! Joe, you overdo it way too much! It's so great to see you though! I didn't know you were coming to Japan!" 

"Neither do I, until yesterday," he says sheepishly, and opens the door to the shop, calling out to someone outside, in English, "come on!" 

Three children come running and enter the shop. They are all carrying Digimon. I can't help it; my mouth falls open. 

"J-Joe! Digiworld..." 

"Sora, may I introduce the new digidestined. This young lady with the Floramon is Adrienne, the boy with the Pagumon is Nathan, the girl with the Otamamon is Amy. They're from London, actually, so they have no idea what I'm saying." 

"It's nice to meet you," I say to them in English, feeling rather awkward, "My name is Take - uh, Sora Takenouchi." 

They smile and nod. I grab at Joe. "Joe, explain this to me right now! Sorry, but I can't wait another second while we make with the pleasantries!" 

"Ooh, you've become impatient in my absence," he says, "I guess spending so much time with Yolei has rubbed off on you!" 

"Joe!" 

"Okay, Sora. The story in a nutshell - during that big storm a week or so ago, these three got sucked into digiworld. They've been there a couple of months, having similar experiences to the ones we seven did when we first went - travelling around confused, trying to find a way home, meeting their Digimon who learned to reach new levels." 

"Right, right...?" 

"They've each got crests, like we did, too - Authority, Integrity, Charity." 

"Weird... they don't sound quite the same as ours." 

"Anyway, apparently there is some evil threatening digiworld right now that they couldn't deal with on their own, so Davis - who has set himself up as some sort of all-knowing guardian of the digital world, can you believe it - and helped them out a bit -" 

"Davis is alright! That's wonderful! What about our other Digimon?" 

"Well, Davis told them to tell us that he hasn't seen them for ages - see, because of this evil, some of digiworld was reconfigured, and so some areas just aren't there any more, and others have moved, and he just doesn't know where to look. But he's sure they're fine." 

I frown. "Okay... so why are the digidestined here?" 

"Davis sent them here." 

"If Davis can open the gate, why didn't he come through himself?" 

"Oh, I don't know, Sora. Maybe he doesn't have the right type of digivice, maybe he wants to stay and make sure digiworld is safe, maybe the gate only opens for these digidestined. I don't know! But there is a time difference between worlds again." 

"So the time we spend here could be months or even years passing in the digiworld..." 

"That's right," says Joe seriously, "we have to be as quick as we can. The new digidestined came here to find all of us old digidestined to take us back to digiworld so we can help them defeat the enemy." 

I can't help frowning again; this doesn't seem like a very efficient way of doing things. "If whatever destiny is ruling digiworld wanted us to fight, why don't they just let us get through the digital gate?" 

"I really don't know, Sora, but my guess is that digiworld has *changed* when it was reconfigured, and the gate has changed too. We came here from London with the help of Nathan's Digimon, who can teleport when he goes Ultimate." 

"Right," I say, and all I can think is that we can go back, "thanks for the update Joe, let's track down the others now!" 

--Matt's POV-- 

Gaah, shut up! I don't have any lectures this morning, so it FIGURES that the one chance I get to sleep in, the phone starts ringing at some ungodly hour!... okay, so it's more like 8:30, but that's bad enough. Stop ringing! 

It doesn't, so I groan and reach out for the stupid thing. 

"H'lo?" I grunt. 

"Hey Matt, how's it going?" 

"JOE! Hey, dn-you know the time diff'rence, I was tryin' to sleep..." 

"Sorry Matt. Actually, I'm calling you from right here in Japan. I have important news about the digital world." 

"Digiworld?!" Suddenly I'm wide awake. Gabumon! Digiworld! The place where my identity is all tied up, where I really *met* my best friends, where I worried I might never get to see again. 

"Could you come down to Sora's mother's store? It's an emergency meeting for the digi-" 

"I'll be there! In five, ten minutes! Don't start without me, I'm coming! Seeya!" 

I slam down the phone with great enthusiasm. News about the digital world! It's been just a week, but when you don't know what's happening, it feels like a *lifetime* of separation! 

But... what if the meeting is about something bad? What if Joe's somehow figured out that something is seriously wrong? What if the digital world got deleted, like Izzy's been thinking? What if, what if, what if? 

I get dressed in a mad hurry. When I'm halfway out the door it occurs to me that I never even told Joe I was glad to hear from him again. 

--Takeru's POV-- 

Kari's sitting across from me, eating the omelette I made. She's looking small and thin and kind of vulnerable in her big fluffy pink bathrobe. She smiles at me as she sees me looking at her, but she does look tired, and distracted, again. Has she been having bad dreams again? 

I'm glad we're sharing an apartment now, it means I can keep an eye on her and look after her. I worry about her when she's not around. Other people get the wrong idea - Matt's always at me to pop the question - but somehow the idea of *marrying* Kari sounds strange. We're really just friends, even if nobody ever believes me when I say that! 

"Kari, are you -" 

The phone rings. I grunt and walk over to get it. 

"Hello, Takeru speaking." 

"Takeru! It's Sora. Could you and Kari come to my shop right now? I'm sorry to bother you with an urgent message at this time of day but it really is important. We've found out new stuff about digiworld." 

"What sort of new stuff?" 

"Well, in a nutshell, Joe's just shown up after teleporting from London with three new digidestined children, and says we have to go back to digiworld for a new adventure." 

Okay, that's not quite the answer I was expecting. That *does* sound important! A new adventure? I can't help feeling excited at the thought. And Patamon... Gatomon... Kari's been so worried lately. 

"We'll be there right away, Sora! Bye!" 

"See ya!" 

I hang up and stand there grinning for a moment. Kari smiles a little. 

"What are you so happy about? What did Sora say?" 

"We have to get to her flower shop right away. You'll never believe this, Kari, but three new digidestined have shown up and it looks like a new adventure is about to start!" 

"Three new..." she began, her eyes wide. "TK, my dream! Oh, we have to go right away to meet them!" 

That's right... come to think of it, she did say something about a dream she had last week... three chosen ones. I didn't think too much of it, because I was just busy worrying about Patamon. 

--Cody's POV-- 

Early to bed, early to rise. I always thought that was a very wise saying. Then I entered high school, and from there on it became impossible to implement. Bed at 3, up at 6. The bus will be leaving in half an hour, and hopefully I can read the next chapter of my biology textbook during the trip. There is no point in wasting time relaxing. 

I can't help almost feeling a little envious of my older friends; they're in university or working by now, and it seems like they all have a lot of free time on their hands. But study is a duty I can't shirk. If I want to become a doctor, I have a lot of it ahead. I won't back down from it. 

My cell phone goes off in home group; who could be calling me at this hour? And how could I have forgotten to turn it off? But wait - it's a text message from - JOE'S cell phone? Joe? Why would he be sending me a long-distance message like this? He knows I have email. 

But the message makes me catch my breath. Today I have an important chemistry practical session, and a calculus test, as well as a physics class I really should attend to take important notes from. I can't afford to take a day off school, and I certainly don't want to have to lie and make up a reason for being absent. 

I know all this, but it doesn't stop me from rising from my seat and running out of the classroom. 

--Mimi's POV-- 

I've been staying with Yolei for the last few days. I was just so upset to find out about the digital world being closed, I couldn't stay away from my friends any more. I needed to be with other people who understood. Michael was a digidestined but he couldn't really understand; he hadn't been part of one of our groups, he didn't know just how much digiworld meant to us who'd had to live there and fight to save it. 

Not to mention, it's not like I can do much interesting work with the digigate closed anyway. I like studying all the pretty flowers and interesting plant species and getting famous, but my success mostly depends on being able to get those digital plants. 

It sucks too, that Palmon was on the other side of the gate at the time it closed. I mean it really, REALLY sucks! She used to help me find cool species and told me about some of their properties, then we'd do lab work together... ohh, Palmon... I miss her cheerful grin, the way she used to look up at me expectantly as she waited for my opinion on something, the way we promised to always stick together... 

It feels totally weird being with Yolei and the others again, instead of with Michael. I've never gone on a holiday without him before. But then, this isn't really a holiday. 

Yolei's phone rings... and again... and again... "Yolei, are you going to answer that?" I call, but she just groans something incoherant. Yolei is not a morning person. Neither am I, or I'd be answering the phone too. 

The answering machine goes off. "Hello, this is Yolei Inoue, I'm not home right now, but my answering machine is, so talk at it instead, and I'll get back to you unless you're Simon or Jared or Tetsuya." 

I can't help sweatdropping... but then, after the beep, I hear - Joe? Joe! I jump up, kicking off my fluffy quilt, and shoving my feet into slippers as I make a mad dash for the living room. I end up tripping over the couch in my hurry and sit there in frustration as I hear the beep - signalling the message ending. 

"Gaaaah!" I shriek, "not faiiiiir!" 

"Was that Joe?" asks Yolei, shuffling out of her room, "or was it my imagination?" 

"Yeah, it was Joe," I sigh, "I can't believe he called here and I didn't even get to the phone in time!" 

"What did he say?" asked Yolei, "I couldn't hear the message, you were making so much noise getting to the phone." 

Well... if it comes to that, I didn't hear it either. So I press the 'play' button... 

--General POV-- 

Ken ran into the flower shop; everyone else was already there. He looked dishevelled, and was out of breath. 

"S- sorry I'm late," he puffed, "you got me on my cell phone while I was in the middle of a lecture. I couldn't check the message until the lecture was finished, I had no idea it was so important! What about Davis? He's alright, right? And Wormmon? And -" 

"Relax, Ken," said Sora, "Joe will explain everything from the start." 

"Yeah, finally," scowled Tai, "he insisted on waiting until everyone came so he wouldn't have to explain things a dozen times." 

"Again, I'm very sorry!" said Ken, then turned to Joe. "Joe! What can you tell us? And who are these kids and Digimon?" 

The three children were looking a little uncomfortable by now; surrounded by Japanese-speaking adults, and not really having a clue what was going on. 

Joe smiled at everyone from where he was slumped, half-asleep, in a chair. "Right," he said quietly, and everyone fell silent as he began to explain. 

***

"Right," said Koushiro, taking the lead, "let's see these digivices." 

"Could we see your digivice, please?" asked Mimi in English. 

"Digivice?" repeated Nathan, not recognising the word. 

"The thing that helps your Digimon to digivolve?" 

"Oh, we call them d-powers," said Adrienne, "but I think I know what you mean." 

Amy held hers out. Koushiro grabbed it and turned it over in his hands, scrutinising it. Ken looked over his shoulder with interest. 

Amy's 'd-power' was a blue device roughly the size and shape of a small pencil tin. It had a screen and a number of different buttons. 

"These are do what?" asked Ken, in bad English, pointing to the buttons. 

Adrienne leaned over and pointed at each button in turn. "That one switches to clock mode, these two are just selection keys, that one means digivolving mode is switched on, that one is for videoconference mode, that one is data transfer mode when we connect our d-powers together, that one lets us contact the Great Enlightened One, and I don't know what those two do. Nothing happened when we tried them." 

Ken looked helplessly around the group. Mimi sighed and started translating. Koushiro was more interested in a jack at the back of the d-power. 

He pointed at it and raised his eyebrows at the new digidestined. Amy shrugged. 

"I don't know what that does," said Adrienne. 

"Can I... take this?" asked Koushiro haltingly. 

"No!" said Amy, grabbing it back, "that's mine, I need it to help Otamamon digivolve!" 

"I think he meant he wanted to borrow it," said Joe, "Izzy's really into computers and electronics, he probably just wants to try something. You can trust him; he's a digidestined." 

Amy frowned and handed the d-power back. "Be REALLY careful with it," she warned, and Koushiro nodded, although he didn't know what she said. 

"Sora, is there a computer somewhere in this store?" asked Koushiro. 

Sora looked at him quizzically; he was carrying his laptop's bag on his back. 

"In the back room, we use it to keep a database of our orders." 

"Right, let's go." 

The digidestined all trailed into the backroom, where Sora's mother was sitting with a pair of scissors in one hand, smoothing back some fern fronds with her other hand. She looked up when they entered, and her eyes widened. 

"Sora! Who are all these people?" 

Sora sweatdropped. "Just a few friends of mine! Didn't you know they were here? Most of them have been in the shop for the last hour!" 

"I didn't know," said her mother, "I was engrossed in my work. What do you think of this combination for the Makimachi's dinner party tonight?" 

"It's nice," said Sora, leaning over to inspect, "but do you think maybe you should use some of those pink zinnias instead of the white ones?" 

"Hmm. I'll try it." 

Mimi leaned on the table Mrs Takenouchi was working at, and began to offer her unsolicited opinions about what were the best and most resilient plants to use. Mrs Takenouchi steadily ignored her as she pried open petals to the right distances. 

Koushiro plugged the d-power into the back of the Takenouchi's computer and booted it up. Everyone except Mimi and Floramon (who was excitedly trying to peek at all the flowers in the backroom without being noticed by Sora's mother) gathered around it with interest. 

Windows 2004 loaded, and a window came up - new peripheral detected, did they want to run through the installation process? Koushiro did, and suddenly the screen changed entirely, to a display that was simply a black screen with white characters printed on it. 

"Is that written in Japanese?" asked Nathan, pointing at the characters. 

"No," said Cody, narrowing his eyes in confusion. 

"I wonder what it says," said Takeru. 

Koushiro appeared to be thinking hard. After a moment, he opened his eyes and held up a finger. "Now I remember! I saw these characters in digiworld back when I was ten!" 

"Oh," said Mimi, coming over, "do you mean those annoying things that you wasted hours trying to decode and you spent the whole time ignoring me?" 

"That's right," he said happily, "let's see, this says... um... 'press any key to continue'." 

Everyone facefaulted. 

"Izzy!" said Matt, "this isn't a joke!" 

"Sorry, sorry!" he said, "seriously, it says... uh... 'three ports... three crests, three keys'." 

"How can you POSSIBLY remember what those symbols meant?" asked Tai, "it's not like you've read them in the last ten years." 

Izzy grinned sheepishly. "Well, a photographic memory comes in useful sometimes." 

"Lucky," scowled Yolei, "I wish I could remember things that easily, then I wouldn't have to spend so much time studying!" 

"Well, I think it's pretty obvious what that's meant to mean," said Kari, "if we want to get to digiworld, plug the other two digivices into ports at the back of the computer, and then combine the power of these kids' crests." 

"I didn't think it was that obvious," said Matt, with a little sweatdrop. 

"It's worth a try," said Ken, "at this stage, anything's worth a try." 

"Joe," said Nathan, tugging on his sleeve, "what is everyone saying?" 

"This language barrier is a real pain," said Mimi. Joe smiled. 

"Izzy and Kari think that if you and Adrienne insert your d-powers into that computer as well, maybe your crests will react and open the digital gate." 

"That's not exactly what they said," said Mimi. 

Joe rolled his eyes. "Mimi, does it matter?" 

"Well," said Adrienne to the other two children, "I guess our break in the real world is over already." 

"I don't wanna go back," sighed Amy. 

"We don't have a choice," said Nathan, and handed his d-power to Koushiro. Adrienne nodded and did the same. 

"I'm sure we'll get to come back real soon," said Adrienne, and patted Amy on the head. 

"That's right," said Mimi, "just believe in yourselves! And because of the time difference between worlds, you won't miss out on much in this world anyway!" 

Amy smiled. "That's good, 'cos I have a ballet performance in two weeks!" 

"Oh, you take ballet?" asked Mimi, crouching down to Amy-height, "is it fun?" 

"Mm hmm! My teacher said if I practise really hard maybe I can get a main part in our NEXT performance so I wanna do really really well in this one!" 

"That's great! Have you been practising in digiworld?" 

"You bet she does," said Adrienne, "at the most inopportune moments, she just doesn't shut up about her stupid ballet." 

Amy stuck her tongue out. "You're just jealous 'cos you have three left feet!" 

"Hey girls, pay attention," said Nathan, and the three looked at the computer; the three d-powers were now plugged in, and the screen was a simple blank, silvery-white colour. 

"That's weird," said Matt, tapping the monitor. 

The children looked at each other. 

"Ready?" asked Adrienne, clutching her crest with one hand. 

"As always," said Nathan, clutching his and trying to look more determined than scared. 

"If we have to," sighed Amy, and took her crest up too. From their hands came a faint glow, and Adrienne instinctively moved toward the computer and touched the screen. Her fingers went through it, so she pushed her whole hand through, and then, suddenly, there was a great flash and all digidestined in the room vanished. 

Sora's mother finished tucking in a particularly stubborn leaf, and looked up in surprise. 

"Oh... they're gone suddenly." 

She blinked, and then went back to her work, apparently unconcerned. 

--Nathan's POV-- 

We just experienced that unreal feeling of travelling through dimensions, and now it looks like we're on a beach, but where are Joe, and Mimi, and Sora, and the others? 

"Adrienne, Amy," I say, "are you girls alright?" 

"I fell on my butt," scowls Adrienne. She's so forward, a slightly strange girl... 

"I'm okay," says Amy, "but where did the others go? What HAPPENED?" 

I don't know. "Maybe something went wrong." 

"Don't say things like that," said Pagumon, "we're back, aren't we? We did our best, didn't we?" 

"We're definitely in digiworld," says Adrienne. 

We just stand there for a while, looking around. The sky is full of ominous-looking clouds; in fact, there's a whole sort of evil atmosphere. It looks like our enemies have become more powerful in our absence. I hope the friendly Digimon we've met, and the Great Enlightened One, are alright. 

I glance down, realising my d-power is back on me, sticking out of my pocket. It's as though I never gave it up. 

"Wonder how long we've been gone," whispers Adrienne. She looks kind of upset. She's right to, maybe, because it is not nice here. When we were here a few days ago - a few years ago? - it was bright and clean and it felt safe, even if there were evil Digimon somewhere. 

Floramon fidgets nervously. 

"This isn't good, this isn't good," she says, "this isn't the same digiworld as we left, is it? And we absolutely hafta figure out how to digivolve to Ultimate! At least your crests glowed a leetle bit in the real world, that's a sign of hope, isn't it? But I don't think it's so good for us... even if we CAN digivolve to Ultimate... it feels like evil's just everywhere now, and the idea that the Great Enlightened One had, our last hope, just fell through, it looks like we're really on our own and -" 

"Hush up," hisses Otamamon, who doesn't usually speak sharply, but she is looking at Amy, and I can see why she wants Floramon to stop panicking. 

"Addy, I'm scared," says Amy, her blue eyes filling with sudden tears. Adrienne automatically moves to touch her sister's head, and they stand there in silence for a moment. 

"What are we going to do now?" I ask - well, I'm really asking Adrienne. Amy looks up at her sister expectantly. I think we both tend to look to Adrienne for ideas and leadership, especially when we're at a loss. 

I think Adrienne is scared too, but she comes through, as always, and grins with a determined, rather roguish look on her face. 

"Right!" she says, pounding her fist into her palm, "first we're going to walk around and find out what we can about what's happened in our absence! Since we've somehow still got our d-powers, we can try to home in on the Great Enlightened One. We'll look for something to eat, maybe get a little rest - I swear I feel like we're still on England time, 4am or whatever it is by now." 

"And then what?" asks Otamamon hesitantly. 

"And theeeen," she says, with hands on hips, "we go and kick butt! C'mon, everything that happens in digiworld seems to go by chance, so let's play it by ear, stick together, we'll be just fine!" 

She grins at us and Amy smiles back. But I can see uncertainty in her eyes, and it makes me a little worried. 

   [1]: mailto:leto@nysa.cx



	3. The adventure begins

**Prove yourself!**  
by [Leto][1]  
**Chapter three - The first day: morning**

--General POV-- 

All of the old digidestined - minus Davis, of course - found themselves in a strange place where there seems to be no ground or sky, just a faint glowing pink light all around them. 

"Where ARE we?" 

Cody, Koushiro and Yolei asked that question at the same time, beating the others to it. 

"I'd say that's a good question," said Mimi, stomping on the not-ground. There was *something* solid keeping them up, but she couldn't seem to *see* it. 

"Is this digiworld?" asked Tai. 

"If it has, it's really been having a bad day," said Takeru. 

"What if it really WAS deleted?" said Sora. 

"I don't think we're in digiworld," said Kari uncertainly. Everyone looked at her, surprised. 

"What are you thinking, Kari?" asked Tai. 

"I'd like to hear your opinion," agreed Ken. 

Everyone looked to Kari expectantly, recognising her affinity with digiworld and hoping she had some idea what was happening. 

"This light almost seems like the light of hope," said Kari, "but we're not in digiworld. It almost feels... almost feels like we're not in either world, but got stuck in between." 

"CorrECT!" 

The young adults looked up, startled, at the sound of a new and unfamiliar voice entering the conversation. 

"Ex-digidestined -" the voice began, and everyone winced at the thought of being an *ex* digidestined, "no more riddles or games. I'll be frank with you; a new Mega Digimon appeared, and the existance of Mega Digimon upset the balance of virus and vaccine." 

Koushiro opened his mouth, no doubt to ask about a million questions, but Cody and Takeru both put hands over his mouth, wanting to hear what was going to be said next.

"That imbalance disrupted the flow of time between worlds, and when there is a time difference, the gate between worlds will become damaged as constant traffic between worlds in such a state simply cannot be accommodated." 

Everyone was looking up, as it sounded like the voice was coming from above, although it was hard to place. Takeru glanced at Kari and froze in surprise; her mouth was forming the words as they were being spoken. 

"We had shaped three new crests and we found three children who could use them, but the evil began to spread, like a virus, infecting normally friendly Digimon. The number of enemies increased, and there were too many for the children to face on their own with only three Digimon." 

"So, let us help!" called Tai immediately, and, predictably. 

"It isn't that simple; the reason we chose new digidestined rather than recycle you old ones is because your crests were damaged all that time ago, and three of the new digidestined - Cody, Yolei, Davis - never really had crests to begin with. We needed new individuals with new power, who could handle these new crests. 

But your world has forgotten Digimon, and people are becoming selfish. We could not find any other candidates in the human world who were qualified to become new digidestined, and so we must return to you old ones in the hopes that some of you may still have what it takes. 

Some years have passed since the new digidestined went back into your world to find you, and in that time, we have taken the opportunity to mend *your* crests." 

"MEND them?" repeated Matt, "you mean they're not... not gone forever?" 

In response, there were eleven flashes in the air, and in front of each man and woman floated a crest engraved in a small disk. Yolei and Cody found themselves presented with symbols of Love-Sincerity intertwined, and Knowledge-Reliability intertwined, respectively. 

They took the disks, which, when touched, fastened themselves to the digidestined's chests, just above the heart. 

"However, it has been some time since you used the crests. We did not know if you still possessed the strong characteristics required to activate them. To reactivate the crests, you will all travel together in the digital world." 

"Does that mean we get to see our Digimon again?" asked Sora eagerly. 

"Four of you will." 

The digidestined blinked. 

"Four?" snapped Yolei, "why only four?!" 

"Which four?" asked Ken. 

"The four of you who prove yourselves. There can be up to eight active digidestined at one time, and with the three new children, and Davis, who has already proven himself, there are four positions." 

"Just great," muttered Yolei, "I bet that means TK, Kari, Matt and Tai, and the rest of us get left out as usual." 

"Whichever of you four prove yourselves deserving of your crests the most times in the next week will get to see their Digimon again, and will help to save the digital world." 

"And what about the rest of us?" asked Cody. 

"You will go back to your world as retired digidestined and with the deactivation of your crests and your powers, the digital gate will not open for you again." 

Everyone stared around at each other, shocked at this idea. Not... not see their Digimon again? Koushiro took advantage of Cody and Takeru being distracted, to pry their hands off his mouth. 

"How are we supposed to survive for five minutes in digiworld without our Digimon?" he asked, "and who are you, anyway? And how were you able to repair our crests, especially if you weren't sure our qualities still existed within us? Weren't they originally manufactured from those qualities? And why did you choose those particular three children? What did you mean when - waaaaugh!" 

Koushiro was cut off in mid-interrogation by the world suddenly crashing down around them - the pink light faded, the strange nothing-landscape disappeared, and suddenly they were all on the ground in a field of digital daisies. 

"That voice didn't even answer any of my questions!" said Koushiro indignantly. 

"Well, at least that mysterious source of wisdom and instruction was a lot more specific and helpful than any of the OTHER mysterious sources of wisdom and instruction we've encountered," said Mimi, standing up and smoothing her dress. 

"Kari, are you alright?" asked Takeru. There was a strange pinkish light in her eyes, like the one that had surrounded them all a little earlier. 

"I'm... I do feel a little strange," she confessed, blinking very quickly a few times, "don't worry about me TK, I'm fine." 

Tai smiled at her and then looked all around him. The digital world had an oppressive atmosphere that it didn't have the last time he came, he thought... 

"I never thought I'd see this again," said Joe, looking at his crest. 

"Mm," agreed Matt, looking at his own. 

Then there was an awkward silence, as everyone stood there under the grey sky of the digital world, and thought about the implications of what the voice had said... 

"This means we're in competition with each other," said Tai bluntly. 

"Don't say that," protested Sora, "we're still friends who have to work together. 

"Sora's right," said Ken, "but..." 

"Whaddya mean 'but'?!" said Mimi, upset, "there's no but! We'll all just have to do our best!" 

"What can we do without our Digimon, though?" asked Joe reasonably. 

Matt cracked his knuckles. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm in much better shape than I was when I was an 11-year-old. If it comes to it, can't we take down the enemies by attacking them ourselves?" 

"Matt, please don't crack your knuckles," said Yolei. 

"I don't know, Matt," said Joe, "I can't see myself lunging at a 50-foot-tall monster and trying to wrestle them down with my bare hands. And this is my good suit." 

Matt slapped his forehead with one hand. "Joe..." 

"Joe's right, though," said Mimi, "there must be a better way. Maybe we could use our digivices or crests, like we did to destroy black gears. I don't want to get hurt." 

"I don't think I'm any match for anything beyond an in-training Digimon, to be honest," said Kari. 

"I can't believe you guys," said Matt, "where are your priorities? You're so worried about getting hurt you wouldn't even try?!" 

"Shut up, Matt," snapped Mimi, "in case you'd forgotten" - she patted her stomach significantly - "and I don't want to put my baby in danger for anything." 

Matt went a little red; he *had* forgotten, even though her pregnancy was starting to show. It was just *weird* to think of one of the digidestined being pregnant. 

"Well, isn't this an encouraging beginning," sighed Sora, "you guys really exemplify teamwork and friendship." 

Matt and Mimi both opened their mouths to say something, thought better of it, and kept quiet. 

"What are we going to do now?" asked Cody, "we're in digiworld but I don't recognise this place." 

Ken frowned. He didn't either, and he had seen a lot more of digiworld than Cody had. "Neither do I, at that. Koushiro?" 

Koushiro, who already had his laptop on his lap, looked up. "What?" 

"Were you listening to anything we just said?" 

"Was I supposed to?" 

Ken sweatdropped. "Do you know where we are?" 

"Well, I don't recognise it, but I'm trying to find out where we are right now. It's strange but it seems as though the entire digital world is not only different, but parts of it keep changing." 

"Changing HOW?" asked Matt. 

"I don't know," said Koushiro, "but you can bet it's not for the better. There must be a pattern... we should get going, for all we know the ground we're standing on might be reconfigured any minute." 

"Oh, that's reassuring," said Joe sarcastically. 

Ken leaned over Koushiro's shoulder. "Can you find Davis on that thing?" 

"Or our Digimon?" asked Yolei, leaning over his other shoulder. 

"Or the new digidestined?" asked Joe, leaning over his head. 

"I really have no idea where they could be," admitted Koushiro, "and could you all get off me, please?" 

"Right, guys," said Tai, clapping his hands, "you heard the computer nerd, time to get going." 

"Tai, we're not kids any more," said Matt, "you don't have to act like you're our babysitter or something." 

"I wasn't!" protested Tai, "I just meant... ohh, shut up, Matt." 

"Personally, I wouldn't mind getting a little shut-eye before we embarked on our new quest to save the world," said Joe.

"What're you talking about?" asked Matt, "it's nowhere near night time, Joe, we just woke up!" 

"You did," said Joe, "but I just finished a sixteen hour shift at the hospital and I haven't slept for about a day." 

"Sixteen hours," repeated Yolei in disbelief. 

"I wouldn't mind some more sleep myself," said Mimi, "I was trying to sleep in when Joe called and woke me up." 

"Ditto," said Yolei. 

"Well yeah, me too," admitted Matt, "but now that we're up, this is no time to be slugabeds." 

"Okay," said Joe agreeably, "no problem." 

Matt glanced at him suspiciously. He'd gotten agreement a lot more easily than he'd expected. 

"Everyone, if we're going to do something, can we please hurry up and do it?" said Takeru. 

Nobody felt like arguing with that, so everyone started walking rather aimlessly toward what looked like the end of the field. 

Koushiro stood, still holding his laptop, and tapping away at it as he walked. 

"This was a lot easier when Tentomon flew ahead as a desk," he said. 

"Ohh, why'd you have to mention our Digimon," said Mimi, "it's just too depressing to think of being in digiworld without them." 

"I hope they're alright," said Sora. 

"Well, if you really hope that, you have one week to prove it," said Cody, a little sharply. Sora looked at him in surprise. 

"I'm sorry, Sora," he said, "it's just that I really don't like this whole idea." 

"I don't think any of us do," said Ken. 

They kept walking. 

***

It is unusual to be able to go for more than half an hour without having an adventure in digiworld, and doubly so when the world is under threat. 

Such was the case for the old digidestined. They had not even reached the end of their field when Cody stopped suddenly, muscles tensing. 

"Cody, you alright?" asked Takeru. 

"I thought I heard something," he said. 

Everyone else froze too, trying to listen, to hear whatever Cody heard. Joe yawned and they all glared at him for daring to make a sound. After a few moments of total silence, Tai began, "well, I guess it wasn't anything -" which was the cue for the ground beneath them to shake and a huge, segmented pink arm to burst out. 

"Ewww!" shrieked Mimi and Yolei in unison, and everyone moved a few steps back, as a huge, bizarre cross between an earthworm and a mole slid out of the ground and stood squinting at them all. 

"So you're the ones stomping around up on the surface and making all that noise?" snapped the creature, "can't a body get a bit of decent sleep around here, you stupid cretins? I, Minermon, will not stand for that!" 

"Minomon?" repeated Ken, a little confused. 

"Not MinOmon, MinERmon. Listen! MinERRRRRRmon, Minerrrrrrmon, Mineeer-" 

"Okay, sorry, I understand," said Ken, quickly, interrupting. 

"We're very sorry to have disturbed your sleep, Mr Minermon," said Mimi, putting on her most charming face, "as a matter of fact, we were just leaving." 

"We really weren't trying to be loud," added Kari, "please forgive us!" 

Yolei looked around at the others; she didn't understand why they were being so nice to such a jerk. She said so. "I don't understand why you're being so nice to such a jerk! Hey buddy, you're even crankier than I am when I get up in the morning! We weren't even being loud, so don't be so over-sensitive. Just get over yourself and let us go on, already!"

Ken sighed and Kari slapped her hand to her forehead. Predictably, Minermon responded with a loud growling sound, and he stood up on his back legs, or what passed as legs. 

"That's it!" he said, "NEVER have I encountered such rudeness!" 

"You obviously haven't met my brother," said Yolei, standing her ground and folding her arms.

"Well, if he's as obnoxious and weird-looking Digimon as you are, I'm glad!"

"I'm not a Digimon, and I'm NOT weird-looking!" 

"If you're not a Digimon, then...?" 

"I'm a digidestined!"

Minermon snorted. "A digidestined without Digimon? That's a laugh. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!" 

Yolei balled her fists up and got an angry vein symbol on her head. "Don't you DARE laugh about that, it's not funny!" 

"No, but it does mean I can finish you off without any difficulty at all," he said, and raised one long, webbed arm in the air.

"Just try it, ugly," she snapped. 

Cody tapped her shoulder. "Uh, Yolei, don't you think it's time to back off? Do you really WANT to be attacked?' 

Yolei tossed her hair in response. "I'm just speaking what's on my mind! That's sincerity, you know!" 

Cody sweatdropped. "Sincerity is acting like a jerk?" 

"Toxic Web!" shrieked Minermon, and he sent several long strands of thread flying at Yolei - and Cody, who was, unfortunately, standing too close. In seconds, the two were tightly trussed up, back-to-back. 

"Owwww, this stuff hurts!" shouted Yolei, trying to wriggle free, "it digs into my skin!" 

"Stop squirming, you're making it cut into me more!" said Cody, on her other side. 

"Please, Mr Minermon, stop it now," said Mimi, stepping in between Yolei-Cody and the Digimon, "she didn't mean all that stuff she said -" 

"Yes I did!" snapped the unrepentant Yolei. 

"Yolei, SHUT UP!... ahem, well, at least, don't you think you've taught her a lesson now? We promise we'll leave right away and not disturb you again if you'll let us all go!"

Minermon frowned, saw Joe yawning, and couldn't help giving a huge yawn himself. "Well... I wouldn't mind getting some more sleep..." 

Kari and Ken moved to cover Yolei's mouth and smiled nervously at Minermon as Yolei struggled and tried to bite their hand. 

"Yolei, stop it, that hurts!" said Cody again. 

"That's right, some more sleep would be really nice," agreed Sora, "I hope you have a really good day's sleep, Mr Minermon!" 

"Fine," muttered Minermon, "just get that annoying purple-haired thing off my property as soon as possible." It was all Ken and Kari could do to subdue Yolei at this point. The Digimon put his head to the ground, wriggled a few times, and disappeared into the soil. 

"Well, that was good work, Yolei," said Cody. 

"Shut UP, Cody, I just couldn't let those guys be so nice to such a jerk, it wouldn't have been sincere, and -" 

"Isn't your other crest supposed to be love?" snapped Mimi - Mimi, snapping? - "you could have been kinder." 

"We were just trying to get out of it without a battle, we're not equipped for one," said Ken, "is diplomacy a completely foreign concept to you?" 

Yolei scowled. "Isn't anyone on my side?" 

Tai grinned at her. "Well, I just say it's too bad your crest isn't Courage, but really, you beat me to it!" 

"Don't encourage her, Tai," said Kari. 

"Come on, let's just go," said Matt. 

"Just one *little* problem," said Cody, nodding to the threads holding them. 

"Not to worry, I've come prepared," said Joe, opening his briefcase. 

"Why does that not surprise me," said Sora. 

Joe rifled through it for a while and then produced a pen knife. "Right, just hold still, I'll have you free in a... uhh... this is tough stuff... grr..." 

"Ow, ow, cut it out, you're making it worse!" shouted Yolei. A head came out of the ground. 

"I thought you said you were going to be quiet!" 

"Right, right, sorry, we're leaving right now!" 

Takeru and Kari moved to start prodding Cody and Yolei along; they walked back-to-back and stumblingly, but after a couple of minutes, they got out of the field. 

Joe sighed. "I don't think I can cut through this stuff." 

"Let me try," said Matt, and tried, producing more peculiar squawks from Yolei and gritted teeth from Cody. 

"This bites," said Tai, as he tried to snap the stuff with his hands, "if Agumon were here he'd slash through this stuff with one Pepper Breath." 

"Well, that's just great, what are we supposed to do in the meantime?!" 

Surprisingly, nobody felt too sorry for Yolei - Ken was secretly trying very hard not to laugh - but they knew something had to be done. 

"Maybe we should go back and see if Minermon will help us to break the webs off," suggested Joe.

"I don't think that'll work, he'll be even more cranky about being woken a *second* time," said Mimi. 

"I wouldn't accept that creep's help if he were the last mon on earth!" said Yolei.

Cody sighed. "Well, with your attitude it looks like we'll be tied up for a long time." 

"Tai, what do you think we should do?" asked Kari. 

Tai looked from Cody and Yolei to the area around them; they seemed to be near the beginnings of a forest.

"Well, there's sure to be a lot of dangerous Digimon in that forest," said Tai, "so I think they'd better come along with us, it's not safe for us to leave them here."

"Nobody was suggesting we leave them here," said Matt. 

"Great, now I'm a liability," muttered Cody. 

"You two will just have to do a kind of three-legged partner thing until we can find someone to break the threads." 

Yolei sighed and Cody bowed his head. "I was afraid of that." 

--Davis' POV--

Something weird happened a few nights ago. This weird light started flashing and a crest dropped in my lap. I've never had a crest before, but it had the symbols of Friendship and Courage on it, so I assumed it was mine. 

It reacts, anyway, and that's the main thing. It's been really useful, and ExVeemon learned to go Ultimate without Stingmon. His Ultimate's called ExExVeemon, can you believe it. What a stupid name. I said so and Veemon got mad at me. What's his Mega gonna be called, ExExExVeemon? Sounds like a dirty word or something. 

It came at a good time 'cos nothing good has happened around here for months, I was starting to get worried. Veemon's always tryin' to be cheerful but even he was starting to get overwhelmed by the feeling that we're the only good guys left in the world. 

I wish the others would come back... but I've lost hope they ever will, t'be honest. Veemon still has faith in them, and I know that there's still some chance, but... it's hopeless to sit around waiting for something that's not gonna happen. I'd rather take action. 

I glance at the sky; there's about one fifth of the sun left, it looks like a big black bite got taken out of it.

"C'mon Veemon," I say, standing up. We're in the Eclipse Valley right now, and we've been hiding behind these rocks all day, waiting for the first eclipse to happen. When it's dark, evil things come out. And so will we. Back to waging a one-mon war... 

--Yolei's POV-- 

Sometimes I feel like the youngest one here. I get the weird feeling like everyone's grown up a little more, like everyone else is in on some secret of how to act, how to keep their cool. I don't *want* to keep my cool. It feels healthier to shout and complain. 

Weird though, I'm usually more composed than this. Since I heard those horrible words - "only four" - there's been this kind of horrible panic. What if I'm not chosen? I know I won't be! Everyone else has always been a lot better at this whole digidestined thing than I have, they're always two steps ahead and I'm left here feeling like I just want to scream! 

And won't it be harder for me anyway, with two qualities on my crest? Does that mean it will react if I show either quality, or only if I show both? 

Love... ohh, why did I ever have to get the crest of Love?! I'm gonna die an old maid, I can't even get a guy to ask me to marry me! So what am I supposed to do? Should I ask Sora? But she doesn't have a boyfriend either! Uggggh it's confusing! 

I might have taken the sincerity thing a little too far 'cos now I'm in this utterly ludicrous predicament. Well, at least it's Cody, we've been friends for years after all. It would be embarassing if it were Ken, or Koushiro... oh! That gives me an idea. 

Hawkmon, we'll help save the world, just hang in there! You can do it, Yolei... I hope, I hope, anyway... 

--General POV-- 

Joe yawned, and was glad they were walking again. It made it easier to stay awake when he was moving. But they weren't moving very *fast*. Yolei and Cody were scuttling like an unco-ordinated crab as best they could, but it didn't make for a very efficient pace. 

"Hey, genius," said Tai. 

"What?" asked Koushiro, Ken, Cody and Joe in unison, not sure who he was addressing. Tai sweatdropped. 

"I meant the genius with the laptop. Any idea where we're going?" 

Koushiro didn't really care where they were going; he would rather see for himself than spend ages trying to find out something that probably wouldn't mean anything to him anyway. But he squelched that thought as being undeserving of the crest of Knowledge. 

"I'll try to figure it out," he said, and started tapping away again. "It's difficult, though - so much of digiworld has changed." 

"You're right, I don't recognise any of these plants," said Mimi. She paused and knelt down, carefully pulling up a small leafy clump and turning it over in her hands. The leaves were ash-grey. 

"Either this is a new species or a very unhealthy-looking bryophyte," she said, "well... I'd better keep it for further study when I go back to the real world. Joe, would you carry this for me?" 

"Why me?" 

"Well, you're always such a helpful guy and you know, I'm in a delicate state, you wouldn't want me to strain myself, would you?" 

"Of course not," said Joe, rather drily, an eyebrow twitching as it usually did when he found himself talking to Mimi. He yawned and accepted the plant. 

-Five minutes later- 

"Oh, this is just ridiculous," said Cody finally, stopping. "We've got to find someway to get this off, or at least rest for a bit." 

"I'm all for resting," said Joe - or at least, Joe's voice, from behind the enormous pile of bushes, flowers, cones and ferns he was carrying. "Mimi, we have a whole week ahead of us, don't you think that if you're going to uproot half the digital world's vegetation, it would be better to do it closer to the end?" 

"Ohh, I suppose so," she sighed, "I just hope we can find all these species again." 

Joe sighed in relief and unceremoniously dumped the lot. 

"Right guys," said Tai, "I think it's about time we split up." 

"No, we don't want to do that," protested Kari, "splitting up is never a good idea."

"We have to look for something or someone to help us break the web," insisted Tai, "right. Koushiro, Kari and I will go in one group, Ken, Mimi and Takeru can take the other, leaving Joe, Matt and Sora to stay with Cody and Yolei." 

"You're just trying to take charge to sound like your old self," said Matt.

"Well, it sounds okay to me," said Ken. 

"Not me," said Takeru, "I don't want to be separated from Kari." 

"And I'd rather be doing something than sitting around," said Matt. 

"And I want a rest," said Mimi. 

Tai rolled his eyes. "Fine then, Kari, Takeru and Matt in one group, Koushiro, Ken and I in the other. That way there's someone with a D3 in each group so we can send each other emails. We'll meet back here in an hour, if someone's not back by, oh, 12:30, the others should go look for them. And if anyone finds something to eat, don't hesitate to grab some for the rest of us." 

Nobody had a problem with this, and so they parted ways. 

   [1]: mailto:leto@nysa.cx



	4. Blue Moon

**Prove yourself!**  
by [Leto][1]  
**Chapter four - The first day: midday**

--General POV - Joe's group-- 

Joe couldn't complain at these arrangements, and leaned back against a tree - a tree with a black trunk, no leaves, and a strange smell, but a tree nonetheless - falling asleep within seconds. Which was quite an impressive compliment because he was not surrounded by quiet company. 

"I'm hungry," said Mimi, "it's not good for me to skip meals, and I need to be taking iron supplement pills, and lots of fresh vegetables and ohh I would kill for a cinnamon donut right now." 

Sora sweatdropped. "I don't think cinnamon donuts come under the category of fresh vegetables." 

"Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything but vegetables around here," said Cody, "and most of them look pretty inedible at that." 

"Yeah, I think there's something really wrong with the plantlife around here," said Mimi, wrinkling up her nose in confusing, "it's almost like something's sapped the colour right out of them." 

"Maybe something has," said Sora. 

"I still want my donuts," said Mimi, "I could eat about a million of 'em. And thick, creamy yoghurt. And maybe some raw cookie dough. Ohh, why did I ever leave home? Why aren't there ever any convenience stores where they would be really convenient?" 

"Hey, my family's convenience store is very conveniently located," said Yolei, "except, of course, that it's not exactly accessable right now..." 

"One of those digital ports would be nice right now," said Mimi, "we could go pick up some... oh! You know what would taste REALLY good?" 

"Mimi, stop it, you're making me hungry," said Sora. 

"At least Joe's not awake," said Mimi, "he's ALWAYS hungry." 

Yolei grinned rather evilly. "Doesn't he look cute when he's asleep..." 

"Not nearly as cute as Michael! Heheheh, I can't wait to get back and see him after this is over!" 

"You know who else is cute?" began Yolei. 

Cody cleared his throat loudly. 

"This isn't going to degenerate into girl talk, is it?" asked Cody warily, "because I remind you all that I'm still here." 

"How could I forget," muttered Yolei. She was sitting cross legged with her back crushed up against his and her arms half-pinioned to his; she thought she was starting to lose circulation to half her body, but she couldn't move unless he did. Cody, being taller, was even less comfortable, his long legs sprawling out awkwardly in front of him. 

Sora smiled suddenly. "Hey Mimi, with your plant know-how and my flower arranging skills, how would you like to collaborate with me on a new little project?"

"What did you have in mind?" 

--Matt's POV-- 

The way we've taken seems to be pretty quiet. It's almost a shame, I wouldn't mind some action. Takeru and Kari are a long way from the two children we always used to feel we had to protect. They're walking quite close to each other. 

We travel along in enemy-less silence for quite a way, and then Kari speaks. 

"Is it just me, or are the trees starting to look a little different?" 

She's right, if it comes to that. Their bark is not so dark, and the air feels a little lighter, less oppressive. 

"We must be reaching the end of the forest," says Takeru. 

Sure enough, a few minutes later, the trees thin out substantially and we find ourselves looking out over a valley of grey rock. Actually, I don't think this is the end of the forest - across the valley, on the other side, there are more trees. But this is a pretty big sort of clearing. 

"Are they - houses?" asks Kari suddenly, pointing to one end of the valley. Well, my eyesight isn't as good as hers, but there's *something* there that isn't part of the valley.

"Let's check it out," I say, "if there are houses, maybe whoever lives there can help us." 

So we make our way down the rocky cliff face, and into the valley. It takes a while to get down there, but as we approach whatever Kari saw, it *does* look like there are houses. Well, more like the sort of huts you see in National Geographic, but houses nonetheless. 

As we get close, Kari breaks into a run - and naturally, Takeru does too, to follow her - and starts calling out. "Hello? Are there any Digimon there? Could you help us?" 

I don't bother; to me, this place screams out 'deserted'. There's something very still and silent about this village. Our footsteps sound loud in it, and there is a coat of dust on everything. 

The house-huts look like they're kind of arranged in circles, but in the middle is a very flattened-looking building. Wooden logs lie on the ground, charred, and there is a huge pile of black ash. I don't know what happened here but it doesn't look like we're going to find much help. 

I check my digivice. It took a while to climb down that cliff; we'd better get going if we want to be back with the others in time. 

Takeru and Kari come out of one of the huts, arms full of cans and packets of food. Terrific! I go in and grab up all I can carry too, then, of one accord, we all start to head back. 

But... did I just hear something scuttling behind me? I turn. No... it's just one of the logs rattling against the ground. 

C'mon Matt, you're getting paranoid.

--General POV - Tai's group-- 

"Life form up ahead," said Koushiro suddenly. 

"Let's hope it's friendly," said Ken. 

None of the three were willing to place much faith in *that* hope, but they walked in the direction of it anyway. After a few moments of walking, they came into a clearing where a peculiar-looking creature was lying.

It vaguely resembled a horse-sized dragon, with a shaggy violet coat on it and dark grey skin. It was lying on its back with two long clawed hands folded on its stomach. Little puffs came out of its nose with each breath; it was obviously sleeping. 

The men looked at each other. 

"Should we wake it up?" whispered Ken. 

"We have to," whispered Tai. 

"Just be _polite_," whispered Koushiro, reminding them of Yolei. 

"Excuse me," said Ken, walking into the clearing. "Excuse me! EXCUSE ME!"

The dragon twitched in its sleep and scratched its belly. 

"Please wake up!" called Koushiro. 

The dragon yawned hugely and rolled over, clapping its jaws together with a smacking sound.

"Allow me," said Tai, and walked right up to the creature, leaning over so his face was above its ear. He opened his mouth very wide to shout, and then - a great yellow eye opened. Tai squeaked in surprise and leapt backwards, tripping over and falling on his butt. 

The dragon blinked at them a few times and then rolled over, pulling himself onto all fours. "Why did you wake me up?" 

"We're very sorry," said Koushiro politely, "but as soon as we saw you we knew that THIS was definitely a strong Digimon who could help us." 

"Well, I am pretty strong," conceded the dragon, with a little smirk, "but as for helping you, you're crazy, right? Why would I want to help you?" 

"We're trying to save digiworld -" began Tai, but got no further. The dragon Digimon laughed unpleasantly. 

"Oh really? You must be from the other world. Fancy thinking you could make any difference to the state of the digiworld!" 

"But I'm sure if you, and other Digimon, helped us, together we could make -" began Ken, but the dragon, who seemed to like interrupting, laughed again and yawned, showing all his teeth. 

"You must be kidding! Think I'm going to help the enemy?"

"Enemy?" repeated Koushiro, "just who are you?" 

The dragon preened, looking rather odd in doing so. "Finally you ask! I am the magnificent Smaugmon, the guardian of this forest! Really, why would I want to restore this lovely darkness when I helped to spread it in the first place?" 

"You did?!" said Tai, balling his fists. 

"Why would you want to do that?" asked Koushiro, "I mean, why destroy digiworld, you have to live in it too!" 

"Who said anything about destroying it?" asked Smaugmon, "we're just making a few improvements. Don't you think this forest is really atmospheric?" 

"If you're into dying trees and grey skies," muttered Tai. 

"That was an insult, wasn't it! Right! Take this! Moon of Fantastica!" 

The men blinked, expecting an attack, but instead, the whole sky became shrouded, and the sun disappeared from view. A great blue moon shone down instead. 

"That's astonomically IMPOSSIBLE," gasped Koushiro. 

"You've never heard the saying 'once in a blue moon'?" asked Smaugmon, "well, I think the moon is really... EMPOWERING!" 

The men blinked again, and took a few steps back as Smaugmon's body began to quiver. His wings shivered and suddenly grew several feet; his arms and legs bulged out, his body elongated, his horrible yellow eyes stared down at them. Instead of being about the size of a horse, he was now closer to the size of a bus. 

"A digivolution?" said Ken. 

"Of course not, this is my true form!" 

"Are we going to fight that thing?" asked Koushiro, hoping the answer would be no. 

"He who fights and runs away -" began Tai, and at that, the three of them turned tail and started running for their lives. 

--General POV - Joe's group--

Sora frowned up at the sky, which had suddenly turned dark. "It's only midday, surely the sun shouldn't be setting already." 

"That's a weird moon," agreed Mimi.

But the two were not of particularly inquiring minds, and soon shrugged and went back to work. 

Joe was still asleep, blissfully unaware that Sora and Mimi were braiding flowers of all sorts into his hair. 

Cody was hitting his feet against the ground, trying to get rid of his pins and needles. Yolei was being bounced up and down against the ground with this motion, and she wore a thoroughly unimpressed expression. 

Mimi crawled over to pick flowers from another bush, and found herself looking into another pair of eyes. 

"WAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" 

Even Joe began to wake up at the sound of a Mimi-screech, and Cody twisted himself around to try to see what was going around. Unfortunately, Yolei was doing the same thing and they ended up with the thread cutting into both of them. 

There was a screeching noise from the bushes and the creature Mimi had come face-to-face with flew into the open. It looked like a small, black version of a Kuwagamon - but was still larger than any of the humans. Mimi ran back to the others. Sora got to her feet, clenching her fists. 

"What do you want?" asked Mimi - but this bug Digimon was not into conversation, and answered by sending a series of spiky missiles at them. One of them slammed Joe right in the stomach, effectively waking him up. 

"Uggh," he groaned, "it's such a mistake to sleep in the middle of the day... huh? It's nighttime already? What's going on?" 

Sora, with a big stick in her hands, was facing the Digimon, and Mimi started hunting on the ground for rocks. The Digimon decided not to bother with Sora and started hurling missiles at the unprotected Cody and Yolei instead. Sora ran in front of them and used the stick as a baseball bat to fend them off. The last one hit at an angle that shattered the stick into splinters. 

The monster began to feel this was a waste of time, and flew at Sora with pincers wide open. It squawked in surprise as it was incercepted by a good shot from one of Mimi's rocks. 

The bug roared, really angry now about its lack of success. The girls took a step back at the look on its face. 

"Joe!" shouted Mimi and Sora in unison. 

Joe sighed. "I can't believe I'm going to do this... I'm a doctor, not a pro wrestler." 

He ran at the bug and jumped at it, grabbing onto its back. The next minute was a rather dizzy one for Joe, as the bug flew around semi-hysterically, trying to throw him off. Joe held on for dear life, hammering at any part of the bug he could reach. 

This bizarre rodeo came to an abrupt end when the bug flew right into a tree - Joe was flung against a branch and fell down to the ground. 

"Ow," he squeaked. 

Mimi smiled, relieved he wasn't seriously hurt. "Joe, you're my hero! That was so totally brave!" 

"Mimi," hissed Sora, "the way you flirt with him is shameless, you're married to another man!" 

Mimi blinked. "Flirting? I'm not flirting, I've just always acted like this with Joe. Anyway, why do you care? Ooooh, could it be that Sora's in love with Joooooe? Oooh, I hear wedding bells!" 

Sora sweatdropped. "Don't kid yourself... and that's not wedding bells you hear, it's an angry Kuwaga-thing! Waaugh!" 

The two dove out of the thing's path as it swooped at them again, landing rather heavily against the ground. Mimi touched her stomach with a look of worry, and rose to her knees. But the bug wasn't paying attention to them; it wanted lunch pre-packed, and was going for Cody and Yolei again. 

Yolei narrowed her eyebrows as she saw it coming, and swung herself around so that Cody was behind her - she got almost the full impact of the bug's attack. The two of them fell to the ground, Yolei wincing in pain, winded. 

--Cody's POV-- 

I hate this, I hate this, I can't stand this. The girls and Joe are getting injured trying to protect us. I should be protecting them. They should be able to depend on me. Mimi shouldn't be fighting at all in her condition, and Yolei... Yolei... I *have* to protect them. I *have* to break this thing. 

W-what's that? Did... did my crest just glow? It was only for a second, maybe I was imagining it. But... no, it can't have been my imagination, it burned right through the threads! 

--General POV - Joe's group-- 

Cody shrugged off the broken threads and got to his feet, a seriously unimpressed look on his face. He stomped his feet a few times to bring the circulation back and then glared at the monster. 

"You've had it now!" he shouted, grabbing up a large branch. The monster clicked its horrible little pincers together and looked at him rather blankly. 

Cody charged, bringing the branch up above his head. He slammed it down with perfect precision. The Digimon was slammed to the ground and writhed around angrily on its back, trying to right itself. Cody didn't plan on giving it the opportunity, and ran at it again, slamming the branch down several times in quick succession, with the force and skill that was to be expected from his grandfather's best kendo student. 

Finally he thrust the stick right into the middle of the bug's exposed belly, and impaled it right through. The bug squeaked pathetically, twitching its legs - and then it dissolved into digital matter and disappeared. 

Cody stood, breathing heavily, and dropped the branch, looking at it as though rather surprised. "Is everybody alright?" he asked. 

"Wow, Cody," said Sora, with respect, "I can sure see why you won all those kendo tournaments." 

"I'm alright," said Mimi, getting to her feet. "Thanks Cody. I'm not so sure about Joe or Yolei though." 

"I'm fine," said Joe - although this was rendered rather less convincing by the fact that he was lying on the ground clutching his stomach and had a large purplish bruise forming down the side of his face. 

"Me too," said Yolei - gasped, rather - also unconvincingly. She was still breathing heavily from the impact, and blood was beginning to soak from her shoulder through her shirt where the pincers had impaled her. 

Cody bowed his head. "I'm sorry I couldn't be faster." 

"How did you break the threads when you couldn't before?" asked Mimi, "oh, I guess that ugly bug-thing broke them when he hit Yolei, right?" 

Cody frowned slightly. He didn't think that's what happened... but he didn't say anything. He looked at his arms where the Minermon threads had cut into them; they were bleeding. 

"I hope Joe has brought first aid," he said. 

"Yeah," Joe managed to get out, "just check my briefcase." 

At that moment, Tai, Ken and Koushiro burst through the foliage and ran to them, breathing heavily. 

"We lost it!" panted Ken. 

"Are you guys alright?" asked Sora, concerned. 

"Are YOU guys alright?" countered Tai, noticing that Joe and Yolei were on the ground, and Yolei and Cody were bleeding. 

"Yeah," said Mimi tiredly, as she started to bandage Yolei's shoulder, "we had an encounter with an angry bug Digimon, but Cody broke free and pounded it into oblivion with some cool kendo moves." 

"That's good. Here, pass the bandages and I'll start on Cody." 

"I don't need any," said Cody, "save them for someone who needs them." 

"But your arms are bleeding from Minermon's attack." 

"It doesn't matter. Really, I'm fine." 

"Haaail the conquering heroes!" 

They looked up at the sound of Matt's voice; Matt, Takeru and Kari came into the clearing laden with food. 

"Wow, you're definitely MY hero!" said Mimi, eyes sparkling at the sight of the food. 

"I thought I was your hero," said Joe weakly. 

"That was ten minutes ago," she said. Joe made a face and she laughed. "I'm just kidding, Joe." 

"Do any of you have any idea why it suddenly seems like night even though it's only lunchtime?" asked Takeru. 

Koushiro, Ken and Tai glanced at each other and laughed nervously. 

"No idea," said Tai. 

"None at all!" agreed Ken. 

Mimi finished tying a final knot and gently patted Yolei's shoulder. "That should hold it, try not to overexert yourself," she said. 

"Thanks," said Yolei, and stood up, trying not to grimace. Her whole body hurt. 

"Wow, you guys look like you've really been in the wars," said Matt. 

"Is everybody okay?" asked Kari, worried. 

"This doesn't seem like a very good start to the week," said Ken. 

"At least we're untied," said Yolei. 

"By the way Joe, nice hair," said Matt. 

Joe blinked and felt his haid gingerly - and screeched in surprise. 

"What did you DO?!" 

Sora and Mimi laughed as he started raking his hands through his hair, pulling out the flowers braided in. He scowled and tried to undo the braids. 

"This is going to take hours to comb out," he said. 

"Oh, now you sound like Mimi," said Sora. 

Joe went red and didn't say anything else. 

Matt, Kari and Takeru dropped their loads on the ground and everyone else dove on them eagerly. They were less eager when they got a closer look. 

"'Roasted Reiyamon wings'?!" 

"What's a Reiyamon?" 

"I don't want to know..." 

"'Virus-Os. The breakfast cereal of digital champions.'" 

"'Dijon custard.'" 

"'Microwave dinner'... it's actually a literal microwave. Do they expect us to eat this?" 

"Where did you FIND all this stuff?" 

"It was in an abandoned Digimon village...

"Anything else of interest around there?"

"Not much."

"'Peanut butter-flavoured instant noodles'?!" "'Dried cauliflower pieces in a creamy mud sauce'?!"

"'Pineapple pieces in chocolate sauce'? These combinations are beyond imagination..." 

"Oooh, pineapple and chocolate?" said Mimi, and snatched it out of the disbelieving Koushiro's hands. 

Everyone managed to find something that didn't sound too scary - well, some did, others - human garbage disposal units, aka men - just grabbed anything that looked like meat. Toward the end of the meal, they started talking, once again, about the conditions under which they were in digiworld. 

"We should talk this out and discern which of us most wants and most deserves to be with our Digimon," said Cody, "and then the others should help those people to qualify." 

"I think if we're keeping in the spirit of real digidestined, we should all be helping each other to qualify even if it means we might miss out ourselves," said Ken. 

"There is one thing we're forgetting, too," said Joe, "the point of this isn't to be with our Digimon again. All of us want that. The point is that the people who are going to be able to save the digital world, do so. The fate of the worlds is what's at stake, not our own little selfish preferences." 

"It's not so selfish to want to be with your Digimon," said Matt defensively, "it's not like I want it just for me. Don't you remember that our Digimon were born for the sole purpose of being our partners? Gabumon spent years looking for me and we swore we'd be friends for ever. Do you think I'm not going to go all out to try to honour that promise? How would he feel if I didn't? Our friendship would mean nothing! Ohh!" 

Matt let out a sudden sharp cry of surprise; his crest was glowing. 

"Matt, your crest's glowing!" exclaimed Mimi, rather unnecessarily. 

"Ohh, it happens that fast?" said Yolei, worried, "so now it's down to a choice between three?" 

Cody frowned slightly and didn't say anything. 

--Sora's POV-- 

I really, really don't like this. What Yolei just said - it's down to a choice between three? It's like a method of elimination, but I don't want to FORCE my crest to react. How can I? It feels like whenver my crest did react, it was a spontaneous thing on account of real feelings. You can't just manufacture real feelings. 

I'm sorry Biyomon. You must know how much I want to see you, but if it's going to happen, it will just have to happen because of what I am now. I think some of the others, like Yolei, have almost slipped into a sort of role play, to try to prove themselves. Will that work? Is there sincerity behind it? 

Right now though, I think everyone is jealous of Matt. Some, like Joe or Ken, try to hide it behind their smiles and congratulations, and some, like Yolei and Mimi, don't bother hiding their envy. Tai slaps Matt on the shoulder, but his eyes show his worry - oh Matt, none of us grudge you your friendship with Gabumon, we know how you love each other, but we're worried for ourselves. 

I'm envious too... what security to have your crest react first - then you wouldn't have to worry about proving yourself for the rest of the trip, because you'd have already succeeded. 

Surely, surely this won't be the last time I ever get to see digiworld? 

   [1]: mailto:leto@nysa.cx



	5. Ultimate Chaos

If you hadn't already worked it out, I don't like the idea that some digidestined are more powerful than others. In this fic, forget the idea that some digidestined are stronger or more likely to be the heroes. Anyone has an equal chance of being strong, or of being chosen as one of the four...

**Prove yourself!**  
[Leto][1]  
**Chapter five - First day: afternoon**

--Tai's POV-- 

I shouldn't have run away from Smaugmon. At the time it seemed like the obvious thing to do, but I wouldn't have done that when I was 11, and my crest reacted a lot then. Maybe if I'd stayed to fight instead of being such a coward and taking the easy way out, my crest would have reacted too.

Now I have to hurry because if I don't get my crest to react before at least eight of the others, I won't get to see Agumon again. At least, I guess that's how it works. 

Still, I *am* happy for Matt. It must be a load off his mind. 

--General POV - English digidestined-- 

"Petalmon digivolve to..."

Adrienne stared in awe at her Digimon, as the symbol on her crest glowed. Petalmon arched back her long neck and all her petals fell to the ground except those that served as wings. Long legs, rather like a horse's, sprouted from her body and as she reared back on her hind legs, green ferny vines wrapped themselves around her legs. A sudden green light swirled around her body, changing it to a shining, green, rock-like substance. A great green flowering mane sprouted down her head, and to finish the digivolution, her body bulged and grew considerably larger. 

"Emeramon!" 

"Yay Emeramon! Yay Emeramon!" called Webmon and Amy in unison.

"Another Ultimate Digimon!" said Garnetmon, grinning at this new addition to their team.

Their enemy of the moment scowled and bared its fangs. "You don't really think that scares me, do you?!"

Emeramon tossed her head proudly. "I'm Emeramon, the Ultimate form of Floramon. My fierce attack will stand for no nonsense from anyone trying to damage this digital world!"

"Bring it on," sneered the virus Digimon.

"Very well then. How do you like the - Mother Nature's Revenge!" 

Emeramon reared back in the sky and flapped her petal wings. As she did so, all the trees around them glowed a bright green, and the light from them came together into a ball of light, which Emeramon smirked and kicked right at the enemy. The enemy was instantly vaporised.

"Wow, not bad," said Garnetmon.

"Of course it wasn't bad," said Emeramon, "this IS me we're talking about!"

The three Digimon dedigivolved and the children ran to their partners. 

"Maybe we CAN win this thing!" said Spritemon happily. 

"When will YOU digivolve?" Amy asked Otamamon. 

Otamamon blushed. "I just don't know..." 

"Don't worry, I like you just the way you are!" 

"Oh, Amy!"

--General POV-- 

The old digidestined had finished their lunch and were, once again, walking through the forest. Hours passed but the sky remained dark. 

Koushiro had his laptop out as usual. Joe, Mimi and Sora were talking quietly, glad to catch up on things after so long with just keeping in contact via letters and phone calls. Joe, limping slightly, was leaning on Sora's shoulder. Matt walked along in silence, watching his feet as they stepped on the dead leaves and grass. 

Tai was at the head of the group, whistling a little tune and constantly glancing around, keeping a look-out. Takeru and Kari were walking side-by-side and playing rock-scissors-paper. 

Cody had his sleeves rolled up and was looking at his arms, scratching the dried blood off; he glanced over at Yolei who was walking half-supported by Ken. Her arms were badly scratched by the thread but it didn't look like she was bleeding. 

"Cody, do you have to do that, it's disgusting," said Yolei.

"Well, whose fault was this in the first place?" 

"Hey, I'm in a lot worse shape than you, and you don't hear ME complaining!" 

"Yes we do," muttered Ken.

"It really is great to see everyone again," Joe was saying, "it's just like old times." 

"If only Davis was here," said Sora wistfully. 

"You mean 'The Great Enlightened One', don't you?" said Joe, which made Sora laugh instead of looking sad.

"Everyone has changed since I last came to Japan," said Mimi. Joe nodded.

"You're not kidding. Tai can actually hold his head up under his haircut now..." 

"Kari as a blonde..." 

"Izzy with glasses." 

"Oh come on Joe, nobody calls him Izzy any more!" 

"I can't get used to that..." 

"And what do you think of my haircut? Isn't it cuuuute?" 

"I don't know Mimi, you kind of look like a guy." 

"Joe, you pay SUCH nice compliments..." 

"Alright!" exclaimed Koushiro suddenly, "Prodigious! I've finally set up a Digimon Analyser again!" 

"That's great, Koushiro!" said Tai, "how about looking up Smaugmon?" 

"Smaugmon, what's a Smaugmon?" asked Mimi. 

"Ahh, just a Digimon I heard of once," said Tai evasively.

"I'm way ahead of you, Tai," said Koushiro, tilting the screen so that the others could see. 

"Smaugmon," read Kari, "this legendary Ultimate-level 'chaos' Digimon draws power from the blue moon. Although he is a strong data-type Digimon, he is especially susceptible to computer viruses. Attacks: Moon of Fantastica, Dragon's Claw, Ultimate Chaos." 

"Blue moon..." said Sora, and looked up at the sky. 

"Is there anything more on him?" asked Tai. 

"Let's see... Smaugmon is a vengeful Digimon who will pursue his prey until he has defeated them and crunched their bones into -" 

"It does not say that!" snapped Tai. 

"Just messing with you!" said Koushiro with a grin. Tai muttered something.

"Let me guess," sighed Kari, "you guys ran into Smaugmon and made him really angry and now he's probably hunting you down with a death wish?" 

"Maybe?" said Ken.

Everyone sighed. 

"Well then, if there's this big angry dragon thing somewhere in the forest, how about we, like, get OUT the forest?" suggested Yolei. 

"Wow, sometimes good ideas come from where you least expect them," said Ken. Yolei hit him.

"Just what is that supposed to mean?" 

"Nothing, nothing! Let's just get going!" 

They did. Joe, Mimi and Sora resumed their conversation. 

"So your roommate is a giiiiirl?" asked Mimi, "does she have good fashion sense? Are you two reaaaally close? Do you liiiike her?" 

Joe sweatdropped. "Oh please..." 

"Well, you've certainly been tight-lipped about her!" said Mimi, "maybe you're HIDING something?"

"That's right," agreed Sora, "I never even knew you HAD a roommate until a couple of letters ago, and you never replied to my last one!" 

"Love is in the air," sang Mimi, "everywhere I look around." 

Joe's sweatdrop grew larger. "Really, I didn't have any ulterior motives, I just never thought to mention her. Katie's a nice enough girl but... what *is* it with you and match-making, Mimi?" 

"It's fun," said Mimi, and then, louder - "just look at all the potential couples here! We've got so many good-looking single young men and women! Who's secretly burning with love here? Let's see, we've got Takeru and Kari, the young lovebiiiiirds!" 

"It's not like that," they said in unison, flatly - having said that at least a hundred times in the last few years. 

"Oh, could it be that Kari's really in love with... Matt? Her friendship with Takeru is her way of ANGLING CLOSER TO HIM!" 

"Mimi -" began Matt.

"Maybe she just likes younger men? Look out, Cody, Kari's got her eye on you!" 

Cody went red. "Don't be ridiculous, Mimi -" 

"But, who else? We have Yolei and Ken making SUCH a cute couple over there!" 

"Not a chance," said Ken and Yolei in unison. 

"But you're totally ALL OVER EACH OTHER!" 

"Yeah, she's bleeding all over me, how romantic," said Ken dryly. 

"Or is our real future couple Yolei and Koushiro? The two bespectacled computer experts!" 

"I don't -" began Koushiro. 

"Or Koushiro and Sora? They've been friends for a long while! Yolei and Matt? Or how about Joe and Sora? They've been PRETTY CHATTY if you know what I mean!"

"Mimi, that's -" began Sora. 

"Oh! Oh! Sora and Matt! That's a PERFECT match! Didn't you two used to date? Let's rekindle the flames of passion! Ohohohohohoho!" 

"Mimi," said Tai, "next time maybe you should consider staying in America." 

Mimi blinked, and looked around. Everyone was bright red and flustered-looking. She sweatdropped. 

"Gosh everyone, lighten up a little... so, uh, Joe, you were saying, about your roommate?" 

Joe sighed. Mimi could be very perky at times, but she wasn't usually this bad. Maybe it was hormones. 

"Mimi," said Sora suddenly, "you miss Michael, don't you?" 

"Mmm," she said, nodding a little, her face falling. Joe looked surprised and then smiled a little. How did Sora know... he would never understand women.

Mimi smiled again, suddenly, and patted her stomach. "But you know - I have this little one to remind me that I'm gonna return both of us safely to him at the end!" 

"How far along are you again?" 

"Just over four months..." 

"Well, you *are* looking larger..." 

"Thanks, Joe." 

Takeru, who was walking at the rear of the group, stopped suddenly. 

"Paper!" said Kari. "Hey, you didn't play... what's wrong, TK?" 

"I thought I heard something," he said. Everyone stopped then. 'Hearing something' in digiworld was never a good thing. 

They all stood there in silence, trying to hear for something, and looking into absolutely motionless bushes.

"I'll go take a look," said Matt, taking a couple of steps into the bushes - and came out again two seconds later clawing at his face and making sputtering sounds. 

"Geddit off me geddit off me geddit off meeeee!" he shrieked - although his words were rather muffled by the strange red creature plastered on his face - and Takeru moved forward to pry it off. 

"Does anyone have a spatula?" he joked. Matt was less than appreciative of the humour, shouting about not being able to breathe instead of laughing. Finally the creature lost its grip and Takeru catapulted backwards with it in his hands. 

"What the hell is that thing?!" shouted Matt, his voice going up about an octave. 

Everyone gathered around to look, and Takeru blinked. In his hands was a little round, red creature standing on what seemed like tiny, sticky, Yokomon-like feet.

"Oh how cute," said Mimi, predictably. 

"Yeah, so cute it almost took half my face off," said Matt, touching his face to make sure everything was still there. 

The creature looked up at him solemnly. "Hewwo," it said, "I am Pu-ri-mon! I catch up to you at wast, yesh?" 

"Evidently," muttered Matt, still feeling his face. 

"'Catch up'?" repeated Koushiro, "were you following us?"

"Yesh, I fowwowed Mama all the way fwom nesht!" 

"Who's your Mama, kid?" asked Takeru. 

Purimon smiled brightly and leapt at Matt, landing in his lap. 

"W-what?!" squawked Matt, "you must be joking, I'm not your mother, I've never seen you before!"

"Awww, that's so sweeeeet," said Tai, "really Matt, you look so much like a girl I'm not surprised it mistook you for its mother! Could there be a more motherly soul than Yama-" 

Tai's words were cut off by Matt putting him in a choke hold. 

"Did you come from that empty village we saw?" asked Kari kindly. 

Purimon frowned a little. "Mmm, Pu-ri-mon's nesht all beat up by mean viwush! Evewyone gone but Pu-ri-mon!" 

"Oh, how awful," said Sora.

"How did YOU survive?" asked Koushiro. 

"I don't know, maybe I too shmall? Dey shaid to weave Pu-ri-mon awone sho I wash all awone but then I shaw new Mama and I been so happyyyyy!" 

Purimon bounced up and down on Matt's foot, wearing a big smile. Matt sighed, and looked around. Everyone was giving him looks that plainly said "Matt, you couldn't be so heartless as to break this poor little baby's heart". He sighed. 

"Okay kid, 'Mama' it is," he said, resignedly. 

"That's great, Matt," squeaked Tai, his face purple, "but can you let go of me now?" 

--Yolei's POV-- 

So we're all walking along again - do we ever do anything else in digiworld? Walk, walk, get attacked, walk, walk, get attacked, argue, walk, walk... 

I glance at Cody and he smiles at me. I'm glad. Sometimes we disagree a lot but then he smiles like that - not a typical guarded Cody smirk, but a small, real smile of friendship - and I know we're still friends. 

I'm not so sure about Ken, though. He just seems annoyed with me... and it's putting me off my plan! Maybe I'll just start tomorrow... right now it's kind of hard to walk. Ken's supporting me but that doesn't mean he likes me - he's just kind that way. 

Well, I can't afford to complain about this. Even if I'm hurt, there are still things we have to do. I won't hold the group up. My shoulder's killing me, and my waist hurts where that stupid bug tackled me.

"Are you okay, Yolei?" 

Trust Cody to notice. "I'm fine, I'm fine!" 

He doesn't look convinced, but at that moment, Tai stops walking and the rest of us follow suit so we don't walk into him. He's right to stop - something strange is in the air. The strange dim light that we've been walking in fades. 

"Mama?" asks that weird thing riding on Matt's head. 

"Weird..." says Matt. 

All of us look up at the sky. The blue moon looks different, almost like a shadow's fallen over it. The air grows a whole lot colder all of a sudden. It's freezing! 

"I've got a bad feeling..." says Sora, speaking for all of us, I'm sure! She rubs her bare arms to warm them, and beside her, Mimi is hugging herself, and all of us can hear her teeth chattering. 

"Here, Mimi," says Joe, taking off his coat and draping it over Mimi's shoulders. She nods a thank-you and promptly resumes shivering. Then Joe takes off his jacket and drapes it over Sora's shoulders. 

"Gosh, Joe, how much were you wearing?" asks Kari. She's standing close to Takeru to keep warm. 

"I came from London, it's rather cold there at night," he says defensively.

Well, it was nice of everyone to notice that *I* might be cold too. I'm not wearing warm clothes like most of the guys are. Just as I think that, Ken looks at me. 

"Are you cold, Yolei?"

"No kidding, it feels like the ice age is coming on!" I snap. I'm cold and in pain and annoyed at such a question. Ken pulls me in closer to him and wraps his arm around me... Ken's only wearing a t-shirt and jeans himself, but it sure feels a lot warmer near him! I hope I'm not blushing... 

--Takeru's POV--

We don't have to wait long for something bad to happen. Tai gets impatient with waiting and yells "come out, Smaugmon!" 

"You think it's Smaugmon?" asks Ken. 

There is a truly horrible-sounding laugh that sounds like it comes from overhead. Kari, beside me, cringes. 

"What does this Smaugmon want with us?" she asks. I hate to see her looking worried about anything. If I could pull her any closer to me I would. 

At that moment, a huge dark creature appears above us, blocking out the light of the moon. I can make out the shape of the dragon we saw on Koushiro's computer, but there's a lot of difference between seeing a jpeg and being met in the middle of a dark forest by something dangerous and unfriendly. 

If Patamon were here... no, I can't think like that. We all have to be as strong as we can on our own. But even though all our friends are taking up aggressive stances - Tai and Matt making fists, Sora crouching slightly, Cody grabbing up a stick from the ground, Mimi with her hands on her hips, Joe clutching his briefcase in front of him like a talisman - we all move a little closer to each other. Maybe the others didn't even notice it. 

"Found you!" bellows the monster. How on earth did Tai, Ken and Koushiro get us mixed up with this guy?! 

"What do you want?" yells back Matt.

"Don't you think the chaos is just great?" 

I don't think any of us were expecting that answer. 

"And just what do you mean by that?!" asks Tai. 

"Day turning to night! The imbalance between light and darkness in the digital world! Doesn't it feel beautiful?" 

"Not at all!" shouts Kari, stepping forward, "we won't let you evil Digimon destroy the light in this world!" 

I can't help feeling proud of her. Even if she's afraid, she always has that light in her. 

Smaugmon laughs. "Of course, that's your attitude. Don't you think that's why we're enemies? Have fun with this attack! Ultimate Chaos!" 

The forest around us starts to turn all different colours. It's really weird and really freaky. I can't help feeling scared. 

Kari grabs my hand, and her face looks strange in the changing light. "TK, it's hopeless!"

If Kari feels that way... then maybe... it is? How can we hope to stand on our own? We're just humans! 

"Look out!" 

It's Koushiro's voice, but I can't see where he is. Where are any of the others? The world around me is whirling in this nauseating blur of flashing colours, I can just feel Kari's hand in mine. I can't see her any more. 

--Mimi's POV-- 

The forest stops whirling - just in time, too, I was starting to feel sick - and there's this sickening crunching sound. I get to my feet - when did I fall over? - and look around. A tree fell down nearby... everyone's still here... for a moment, it was like I couldn't see anyone... Sora's crouched on the ground, looking kind of shocked. I look in the direction she's looking, and there's this silvery light that I've seen before. It's coming from Joe. 

"The same light," I hear Cody whisper, and when I turn to look at him, he's looking down at his crest. What was that supposed to mean? 

The jerk dragon doesn't like this, and glares at Joe, his horrible little eyes staring at him in a totally evil way. 

"You stopped my attack with that cute little trick?" he sneers, "you can't combat chaos, you idiot."

Joe still stands there, not saying anything, his crest glowing and illuminating his face and arms. I realise he's probably too scared to move, and suddenly I have a bad feeling. Smaugmon just hovers in the air, I don't like his stillness. Joe, move out of the way! 

"Dragon's Claw!" Smaugmon shouts suddenly, and hurls his great body down at us - no, at Joe, who is still standing his ground. 

"JOE!" shouts Matt, who's standing closest to him, "get out of the way you idiot!"

He runs at him, but I can tell he's going to be too slow to push him out of the way - oh! oh! - this is terrible! - but - what's this? Matt's crest is glowing too - the two guys are both glowing - the light is surrounding them!

The dragon howls as he slams right into the light, and - and - and he's disintegrating! He was going too fast to stop and now the light from Joe and Matt's crests is destroying him!

I - I can't believe it! The sky is brightening, the sun is coming out again! Smaugmon was... defeated... by us?

--Kari's POV--

I feel just awful. I'm *so* glad that Joe and Matt are okay, but I should have done something. Wasn't it my job to do something? It was light that destroyed that awful dragon, and... 

"I doubted myself," I whisper to TK. He'll understand, he always understands. He does this time. He nods. 

"I know, Kari. I did, too." 

"Without Gatomon, I thought I couldn't do anything against such a strong Digimon..." 

He nods, seriously, and we turn to the others. 

"Way to goooo, guys!" Mimi is babbling, "that was just totally amazing!"

"You're not kidding," says Yolei, "I thought we were goners. What exactly happened?"

"A - a tree fell," says Sora, "and Joe pushed me out the way... but I don't know how he could even tell. I couldn't see a thing except that horrible flash of colours..." 

Joe grins a little sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "I don't know either... I guess it was a lucky break for us." 

"Do you think it was the power of reliability?" asks Cody seriously, "my theory is that the power of reliability was able to stop Smaugmon because it's almost like the opposite of the power of chaos." 

"And the power of friendship?" asks Matt. 

"Protected you both." 

"Hmmm..."

Joe and Matt look at each other. 

"So we can defeat evil Digimon with the power of our crests," says Tai, thoughtfully. That's right, that's a really important point... 

"Guys, I don't know if you've noticed this, but look around us," says Koushiro suddenly. He's not looking around, his eyes are fixated on the computer as usual, but I see what he means. This doesn't look like where we were ten minutes ago. There's a huge dark tree with long, silvery tendrils hanging down right next to me, and I'm sure I didn't see anything like that before. 

"The forest looks less dead," says Mimi, and then points at a shrub, "hey, I recognise that one!"

"According to my map," Koushiro continues, as if she hadn't spoken, "we're in a completely different part of the forest. It must have happened at the time of Smaugmon's chaos attack. Let's head east." 

Purimon bounces over to Matt, looking up at him with wide, admiring eyes. 

"Ish my mama weally a digideshtined?" 

"Yes, HE is," says Matt, "but how do you know about the digidestined, Purimon?"

Purimon blinks. "I... I don't know. But that wash weally weally weally cool, I know Mama will pwotect me, yesh?" 

"Yeah," says Matt, a little absent-mindedly. I wonder what he's thinking. 

So now two of us have had our crests react. If only... oh... I just remembered something. Koushiro's computer said that Smaugmon was infected by a virus, didn't it? Shouldn't we have saved him instead of destroyed him? Couldn't my light have done that? 

Gatomon said, in my dream, that my light had faded... 

--General POV-- 

The digidestined stood at the outskirts of the forest, on the top of a cliff-face that overlooked a huge city. Koushiro whistled admiringly. 

"Wow, civilisation," said Tai, "what are we waiting for, let's go!" 

"We won't reach that city for hours," said Joe reasonably, "I think we should just set up camp for the night." 

"Joe's right," said Yolei, sliding down onto the ground with her back against a tree. "It's not like we have to go anywhere with any urgency."

Tai looked as though he might like to argue this, but Matt nudged him. Some of his friends *did* look pretty spent. Mimi sat down on a fallen log, yawning hugely and looking rather out of sorts, and Joe was glad for the chance to stop walking on his sore foot. 

"Alright," he said, "I guess dinner is leftovers from lunch?" 

"I think I have indigestion already," said Yolei. 

"Now now, we can't afford to be fussy when we're in the middle of nowhere..." 

"I'd rather eat dirt than another one of those 'tomato-flavoured cheese sticks'."

"Well, there is plenty of dirt around here, help yourself Yolei." 

"Very funny."

"Oh, my goodness," said Mimi suddenly, turning a peculiar colour. 

"Is something wrong?" asked Joe. 

She touched her stomach gingerly. "I think I just felt the baby move." 

Most of the guys paled. 

"What are we going to do if Mimi goes into labour in the digital world?" asked Cody. 

"I'm not having the baby NOW, you idiot!" shouted Mimi, "I'm certainly not still going to be HERE in five months!" 

"Oooh, let me feel," said Sora and Kari in unison and went to touch Mimi's stomach. Yolei made a face. 

Mimi stood up suddenly. "I think I'm gonna throw up." 

She made a hasty exit and the others could hear her retching in the bushes. 

"Motherhood, what a beautiful thing," said Yolei dryly. 

"I am SO glad I'm a male," said Matt. Cody, Ken, Tai, Takeru and Koushiro nodded with feeling. Purimon looked up at Matt and blinked. Joe was busy going after Mimi. 

Mimi came back looking white, with Joe patting her on the back. She scowled at him.

"Leave me alone," she said, "I want to wash my hair, I feel like I weigh about three thousand kilograms and my feet feel all swollen and icky." 

"Come on Mimi, you're not *that* fat," said Matt. He got a Death Look from Mimi from his efforts.

"I hate thiiiiis," she wailed, "I just wanna diiiiie!" 

"Don't be ridiculous, Mimi," said Tai, "a little courage, that's all that's needed." 

Mimi started shouting very loudly at that stage, beginning with "how would YOU like it if -" and leading on with things that made all the guys cringe. Tai began to feel increasingly less courageous. 

"And I'm going to sleep, my back hurts and you all suck!" she finished, "if any one of you keeps me awake with your annoying talking I will personally KILL YOU! Good night!" 

She hmpfed and threw herself down on the ground, closing her eyes. Everyone else looked at each other and took a few steps back. 

"Scary..." whispered Kari. 

"Mimi's been a little emotional lately..." observed Koushiro. 

"You noticed too, huh," said Yolei. 

"Well, I'm going to get some shut-eye too," said Joe, "it's been a long day..." 

"How strange to think we can get normal hours of sleep," said Cody, "now that we're in digiworld, we have a whole extra week that no humans get to experience. 

"Just like a holiday, if you're into luxury and big killer dragons," said Yolei. 

"Oh! When we get back it will still be this morning in our world, right?" 

"Yeah..." 

"That's great news! Think how far ahead I can get!" 

Everyone blinked as Cody started rifling through his school satchel. He pulled out a few thick textbooks and smiled triumphantly. 

"Perfect!" 

Yolei blinked. "Wow Cody, do you know how to have fun or what." 

Takeru looked through the books. "Thermonuclear Chemistry... Radioactive Isotopes... Fun with Nuclear Physics... FUN?" 

"You're getting a little loud over there!" bellowed Mimi. Everyone sweatdropped.

"Geez Cody," said Yolei, making sure to keep her voice down, "are they teaching you how to build a nuclear bomb or something?" 

Koushiro showed more enthusiasm, pawing through textbooks. "Elementary transcendental functions! Wow, I loved these! Taylor polynomials! Cody, may I try some of these problems?"

"Sure," said Cody, "just save some for me!" 

Joe had a biological textbook open on his lap and was reading with great interest. Ken found one on computer programming languages and was reading that with equal interest. The others stared at Koushiro and Cody in disbelief. 

"It never ceases to amaze me..." said Sora. She didn't need to finish her sentence.

"Yeah," said Tai, "math's just something you struggle through until you can drop it!"

"Oh no, it's absolutely fascinating," said Cody, "if you haven't experienced the thrill of integral calculus, you haven't lived!" 

"I'm sure," said Tai flatly. 

"What are theshe weird bwack thingsh?" asked Purimon, looking down from his perch on Matt's shoulder.

"They're letters and numbers," said Matt.

"What do they mean?" 

"They mean Cody and Koushiro have no life." 

Koushiro sighed. "They'll never understand, Cody." 

Cody looked as though he truly felt sorry for the others. 

"Oh, Cody, take a look at this one!" 

"Wow, that's a good one! What approach are you going to take?" 

"Well, I was contemplating the - the..." 

"SHUT UUUUUUP!" 

Mimi's shout wasn't what made everyone fall silent. It was Cody and Koushiro's crests glowing in sync. 

Cody touched his. "It's a different colour than last time..." 

"Last time?" repeated Koushiro, touching his own in awe. 

"I thought I saw a silvery light when we were attacked by that bug Digimon earlier today..." 

"That's the colour of the crest of Reliability," said Joe, "now your crest of Knowledge is reacting." 

"Then the four have been chosen," said Ken, feeling sick. "What happens now?"

   [1]: mailto:leto@nysa.cx



	6. The other side of the story

Just wondering about your opinion on this - should I write more about Adrienne and company? I mean, if I give them extra fic time it won't take away from what I write about the main group, and it might be nice just to give them a little story of their own.

Personally, I'm pretty unenthusiastic about reading new-digidestined fics, so I wouldn't blame you if you don't want it. I mean, it's up to you, I don't care.

**Prove yourself!**  
by [Leto][1]  
**The second day: dawn**

--Biyomon's POV-- 

I remember the first day things were different. It started off peacefully enough, I still don't know quite what happened! 

I can kind of swim by floating on the surface of the water, but Gomamon was trying to teach me how to dive. We went to one of the rivers running through the Document Gorge. I wasn't having a lot of luck. He said I looked very funny floundering like a Kokatorimon, as he put it, and I said I'd like to see how he'd look flying. 

But we were having fun. I was hoping that Sora would get the chance to come and visit in the afternoon. I just loved the days when Sora could come! Gomamon was hoping for it too, because sometimes Sora brought news from Joe. I felt kind of sorry for Gomamon because everyone else's partners came to visit them often. He acted all cheerful about it, as usual, but I think he was kind of sad. 

In those days, all of us Rookie Digimon - oh, and Gatomon, of course - were living in about the same area. That way our partners could find us easily when they came to visit! It had been nice and peaceful for a long time. Davis, Ken and Koushiro even came to live here. I kind of wished Sora would too, but I think she likes her world better. Occasionally we'd hear about a mean Digimon picking on weaker Digimon and one of us might go to check it out with our partner, but there were no real threats, y'know? 

Those were the very, very best years. 

We eight - or seven, I guess, I don't know such a lot about Gatomon, she won't talk much about her life before she met Kari - spent the first years of our lives just waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting! And then we got a few fantastic months with our best friends, and then we were waiting again, wondering, hoping that they might come back. 

Then the gate opened again and we were all so happy, but our partners didn't come as often as we would have liked, except Patamon and Gatomon... ohh, I felt so happy for them but I was kind of jealous at the same time too, you know? 

But after the new digidestined finished their adventures, the gates stayed open and things became really really good. We could just have fun being friends with each other, knowing our partners were safe and that we would see them again soon. Sora came to visit at least a couple of times a week, especially after she finished high school. All of us except Gomamon got to see our partners at least every fortnight. Some more than others, I guess. Tai and Cody were pretty busy and didn't come too often, but then Yolei and Matt came every day. 

So like I said, Gomamon and I were clowning around and having fun, when suddenly this big storm came out of nowhere! And I mean a really BIG storm, like the whole sky was dark, in the middle of the day, and there were big flashes of lightning! 

Now, we weren't *really* scared, there have been bad storms before. I just took shelter under some rocks for a while - well, a LONG while! It was cold and the rain was really belting down for hours and hours! Gomamon's crazy, he *likes* storms and he was out splashing in the puddles and having fun. But the storm got stronger and stronger and he had to come shelter with me because I think he would have been blown right away! 

Finally it blew over - as quickly as it had started - and we came out all shivering and wet. Well, I was shivering and wet - Gomamon's never cold. The sun came out again and the clouds just disappeared, but the sky was a kind of weird grey colour. 

Gomamon said we should go make sure our friends were okay, so we did. 

We found Gatomon and Patamon in the forest. Gatomon was shaking the water out of her fur and complaining about how much she hates being wet. Palmon was in the same forest, her legs fixed into the soil, and saying how she just loved a good shower. 

Armadillomon had been sleeping underground but had to wake up when everything around him started turning into mud. He was a little grouchy from being woken up and then rained on for hours, so we didn't talk to him very long. 

We found Agumon under his favourite rock. He hates the cold. Tentomon had been in Koushiro's house, under the lake, so he was okay too, except that he complained about the ceiling dripping. I just don't understand how the whole house wasn't washed away! 

The only one who was hurt at all was Hawkmon - we found him lying on the ground next to Tentomon's old treehouse, the tree he'd been perched in was struck by lightning! Fortunately he was okay, just a little shellshocked, I think. 

Something in the atmosphere seemed somehow different after that storm. I don't know what it was exactly but it's still here, and it's something evil. 

Finally we went to Davis and Ken's house. The whole place had been blown down! I mean, it wasn't a *really* strong house to begin with but it should have easily withstood a normal storm. Gabumon had run to Davis and Ken's house as soon as the storm started, because he has this *thing* about his fur smelling bad when it gets wet. I guess that didn't work out too well, because when we got there Veemon was telling Gabumon to stay away so he couldn't smell him, and Davis was standing staring at the remnants of his house, shaking his head in disbelief. 

"Wow, Davis, that looks pretty bad," said Gomamon. Davis didn't turn around, just sighed. 

"Yeah, thanks Gomamon, I can see that. Man, this is gonna take weeks to fix. I think we'd better just build a whole new house!" 

"When Ken comes back I'll digivolve into Stingmon," said Wormmon, "if we digivolve we can get a lot more work done!" 

"We'll all help out!" I said, "it'll be fun!" 

"Yeah, real fun, working in the mud," said Davis, "Ken's not gonna be happy. All the chairs he bought in the human world are totally crushed!" 

"Maybe we can build a stronger house this time," said Veemon, "let's build a castle! With turrets and flags and a drawbridge and moat!" 

Davis sweatdropped. "Veemon, we're not millionares. And what on earth would we do with a moat?!" 

"Swim in it!" said Gomamon excitedly, "that's a great idea!" 

"You don't need a moat to do that," said Gabumon, "you can almost swim on the ground right now." 

He was right; the rain had fallen so heavily that we Digimon were standing knee-deep in it. 

But we all stuck around and helped to fish things out of the swamp of Davis' ex-house, and the afternoon started to pass, and Wormmon started to get worried. 

"Ken said he'd be back a couple of hours ago! He only had lectures in the morning! What if something's happened to him?" 

"Chill, Wormmon," said Davis, "he's probably just met up with a friend or something. He'll be back soon." 

"Don't worry, Wormmon," agreed Veemon, "the human world is a lot safer than this one, what could possibly happen?" 

Wormmon did not look convinced, and as the hours passed, Davis started to get a little worried too. 

"Where IS that guy? He'd better show up soon so we can figure out what we're going to do tonight. I don't wanna be standing around here in the mud waiting for him all night." 

Then Tentomon came flying up. "Oh, hello," he said, "what happened here?" 

"Use your imagination," snapped Davis. I don't really blame him for snapping; it was cold and he had been waiting for a while. 

"Now now, no need to yell," said Tentomon, "I was wondering if any of you had seen Izzy? He was supposed to be back by now." 

"Come to think of it, Matt usually comes to visit me by this time," said Gabumon. 

This did nothing to reassure Wormmon! But I don't think any of the rest of us were *really* worried at that stage. 

"Alright, Veemon, ready to go?" 

"Where are you going?" I asked. 

"Back to the human world. There's no way I'm sleeping here all night. I'll make sure to tell your partners that you're waiting for them, okay?" 

"Please find Ken," said Wormmon, "I have a really bad feeling, Davis, what if something awful has happened to all of them?" 

"Never happen," said Davis. Because there wasn't really anything else to do, we all walked (waded, really) with him to the nearest TV monitor. 

It wasn't there. 

We stared at the empty spot where it had stood. 

"It's gone," said Veemon. 

"How can it be gooone?" moaned Wormmon, "it's never been gone!" 

I put a wing on his shoulder, reassuringly. "Don't worry Wormmon, I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation!" But I was beginning to feel a little worried by then. 

"Maybe... the Mechanamon stole it for their latest experiments?" suggested Gomamon. "Maybe it got struck by lightning in the storm and dissolved into ashes and they're all buried in the water? Maybe it got reconfigured and now it's somewhere else? Maybe one of our friends hid it for a joke?" 

"Maybe the digital gate closed," said Gabumon. 

We all looked at him, aghast. 

"Don't even say that, Gabumon!" snapped Gomamon. 

"Yeah, it's not funny to make jokes like that," said Davis. 

Of course, we all knew that Gabumon wasn't joking, but we didn't want to think that he was serious or that he might be right, I guess. 

But after we walked all the way to where the next closest monitor was, *that* wasn't there either. We all looked at each other. I can't speak for the others but I was starting to feel really sick. If this was a joke, it was really, REALLY not funny. And the look on Davis' face, I'd never seen him look quite like that before. 

"Try your D3, Davish," said Veemon. 

"Oh... oh, right," said Davis, as if Veemon had startled him. He pulled out his D3 and stared at it. 

"Hey, one of the buttons is missing." 

"Which one?" 

Davis spoke slowly, reluctantly I think. "The one I pressed to open the digital gate..." 

None of us said anything as Davis stood there pressing buttons on his D3 and then shook his head. 

"It wouldn't let me connect to Ken's D3. It's like he doesn't even exist." 

Davis should have known better than to say something like that in front of Wormmon. Wormmon just freaked out. I knew just how he felt, though. What did this mean? Was Sora... why didn't she come? Was she trying? Of course she was... Sora wouldn't just leave me here or forget about me. 

The next week was pretty horrible. Days passed and still no sign of our friends. We worried a lot and even Gomamon couldn't cheer us up. In a way, I guess it was easier on Gomamon than on the rest of us. He didn't get to see Joe very often as it was. But then... I knew he used to live in daily hope that maybe, *maybe* Joe would manage to come soon... and now that hope was looking less likely of coming true. 

Over the next few days, Davis spent a lot of time messing around with computers, or his D3, and he even went on a short journey with Raidramon to check places where there had been other monitors. At least, it was supposed to be a short journey. I don't know if he ever found a gate back to the human's world, but I do know I haven't seen him since. 

All of us digidestined Digimon - except Veemon, of course - decided we'd better stick together. Some new Digimon started to appear, which was okay because there was a Primary Village on our continent, but it seemed like all these new Digimon were virus-types, and a lot of them were Champion or Ultimate-levels. 

Without our partners, the only way we could beat these Digimon was by working together. We'd become pretty experienced fighters and we even took down a couple of really mean Ultimates, although we couldn't have done *that* without Gatomon. 

But we were being outnumbered and we started to worry. Every day there was a new battle. There's a human world saying that "whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger", but in the meantime those things can wear you down, and that's just what happened. 

Hawkmon and Tentomon were sort of co-ordinating things at that time, because they were the fastest flyers and also pretty smart. Patamon and I had just come back from fighting some really nasty Gazimon. We'd been the ones chosen because we could stay in the air and avoid their attacks, and we both have long-range attacks. See, we had a pretty smart system. 

"Last time things got bad like this, our humans came back," said Patamon. 

"Do you mean when the Digimon Emporer started taking over the digital world?" I asked. 

"Yeah. We kept running and hiding and trying to fight but it wasn't easy without our friends. Ohh, do you think they might come back?" 

"I'm sure they're trying right now. Don't worry Patamon, they'll figure something out!" 

Patamon brightened. I wished I could convince myself so easily! 

"Hey, weren't Tentomon and Hawkmon supposed to be waiting for us back at this tree?" 

I frowned a little. "I thought so too. Well, I'm sure they must be gone for a reason, they should be back soon." 

"Okay." 

Patamon settled onto one of the tree branches, stretching his wings over his back. He had a couple of bruises forming from the last battle, and an injured leg from a previous one. I felt a little sad. Digimon don't age except by digivolving; Patamon was still a little kid. He shouldn't have to live like this. But then, at least... Patamon still had hope, and that was the most important thing he could have. 

There was still sign of Hawkmon and Tentomon. After a while, Gomamon, Gatomon and Palmon came back from another fight. 

"Hahahaaa," called Gomamon, "here come the returning digi-world champions! BlackUnimon will never make fun of seafood again!" 

I flew down to meet them. Gatomon was calmly licking one of her paws, holding the glove in the other paw. Palmon just looked tired. Gomamon was cheerful but suddenly I thought it was an act, and - 

"Gomamon, you're bleeding!" 

"Nah, just a scratch! Remember, I'm the great Gomamon! I'm invincible!" 

"And loud-mouthed," smirked Gatomon, "if you didn't keep taunting the enemy to get them so mad, I bet we'd finish the battle in half the time." 

"And it's really hard to hold down a Champion-level Digimon with Poison Ivy while he's mad!" 

"Ahh, you guys don't know how to have any fun!... hey, where are Hawkmon and Tentomon? Weren't we all supposed to meet here so we could plan how to attack the new Warumonzaemon?" 

"I just don't know where they are, Patamon and I have been waiting for a little while..." 

Hawkmon and Tentomon were the first ones to go. I really don't know what could have happened to them. None of us ever talked about the possibility that they might have been reconfigured. It was just too awful to think about! 

For the rest of us, without Hawkmon and Tentomon, it was too dangerous to stay on the island any more! It wasn't okay to stay in one place, and we thought maybe we could find the others if we went off on a new journey. So we all stuck together and travelled for a little while. 

Then one night, we were all sleeping in a field with Gatomon keeping watch. She suddenly screeched and we all woke up; there was a dark THING sweeping over the field, and as it passed over the grass it turned it into a kind of rocky canyon. It was coming closer to us, and too fast for us to escape; it swept right over us and reconfigured the ground under us, and when it was gone, so was everybody else! 

I found myself on a beach that I didn't even recognise, and I was all alone. I missed Sora so much! But since I'm okay, I'm hoping everyone else is too! 

That was a long time ago. Since then I've travelled all over this whole country, I think! It's hard to tell because things keep changing, it's just important not to be standing on the ground when it gets reconfigured. There was one good day though. 

I was flying over the trees of a forest, looking all around as usual. 

"Sora!" I called, "Davis! Palmon! Gomamon! Soraaaa!" 

There was a flurry of movement down below. I just froze in the air and hoped it wasn't another enemy! I'd had too many near-misses for comfort! 

"Soraaaaa!" I called again. 

"Biyomon!" 

It wasn't Sora's voice - but it was a familiar voice, and a familiar voice after so many months alone was just wonderful! I flew down through the trees like a stone! 

"Gabumon!" 

"Biyomon, it's really you! Have you seen Matt?" 

"No, have you seen Sora?" 

"No, have you seen Agumon?" 

"No, have you seen Gomamon?" 

It went on like that for a while but we were just happy to have found a familiar face! 

Right now we're trying to decide how to cross the ocean; we have to keep looking. It's been so long but we just can't give up hope! 

Don't worry Sora, I'll find you soon! Today's a brand new day! 

--Davis' POV-- 

What... happened? Where am I? 

"Davish! DAVISH!" 

That's DemiVeemon's voice... 

"DAVIIIISH!" 

It's cold. Feels like morning. Dim light... my head... 

C'mon Davis, I scold myself. Something's happened, y'can't just lie here like a weakling. Get up get up get up get up. 

My body's aching, my head's pounding, but I think I can open my eyes. Sure enough, there's DemiVeemon, although he looks kind of wobbly. 

"Davish, you're alright!" 

"Sure I am," I mumble, my voice tasting strange. I make myself sit up. It hurts. 

"What happened? DemiVeemon?" 

DemiVeemon frowns. "Don't scare me like that!" 

"Sorry, pal. Don't worry 'bout me, you know I'm invincible!" 

Sure don't *feel* invincible, but being a hero's not about how you feel. 

"That Digimon really wiped the floor with you, Davish!" says DemiVeemon, "I was all busy taking on a couple of Serpamon but that Phantomon jusht came from nowhere and knocked you out before I could even reach you!" 

"So what happened?" 

"He was about to drag you off but then..." 

"But then...?" 

Spit it out, DemiVeemon! 

"Sheadramon came and ice blashted him right out of the shky!" 

"Seadramon? Y'mean Michael's old partner?" 

"That'sh right. There was a big battle and it was kinda hard 'cos the mon kept going after you and you couldn't keep out of the way!" 

Oh, man... the last thing I want to do is hold anyone back from winning. I nod at DemiVeemon to tell him to go on. 

"A flock of DemiDevimon came up then and thingsh were looking really bad but then the eclipse ended and the sun came out again, and they went back into hiding. So I had to lug you out of the way here and you are reaaally eating too much Davish!" 

"So where'd Seadramon go? It's been a while since we've seen him around." 

DemiVeemon frowns again. "Well... it wasn't an EASY battle, Davish..." 

"Yeah, you already said that," I say, "so what... wait a second... are you saying...?" 

DemiVeemon nods. I can't believe it! Well, it shouldn't come as a big surprise by now. Plenty of our friends got deleted trying to help us... but... Seadramon was digidestined, wasn't he? And he was... I dunno... and trying to save me! 

"It'sh alright, Davish," says DemiVeemon, "I'm sure a Primary Village will reopen real soon." 

"No, it's not alright," I snap. I'm feeling very angry. "It's not alright at all! And you always say that! What if it never reopens? And even if it does, all the virus Digimon we've defeated will just show up again!" 

"Don't give up," says DemiVeemon, "we hafta keep fighting!" 

"I know," I sigh. I look down at my crest. I must have it for a reason... but... it's so hard, and I don't know if we'll ever win, if we'll ever see our dead or lost friends again. 

"We'll win because we have to," I say. And stand up. Time for another day, another round of battles, again and again and again, just like every other day. We'll fight because we have to, because this world needs someone to save it. 

But really, I still just want to go home. 

--Kari's POV-- 

"Kari, help me!" 

"Where are you, Gatomon? I'm coming, but I can't find you!" 

"I'm right here! I'm right here in the digital world, Kari!" 

"I can't see you!" 

"Look harder!" 

"It's too dark!" 

"So light it up! Come on, Kari! What are you afraid of?" 

"I... I'm not afraid!" 

"Don't lie to yourself. Sometimes I think I know you better than you know yourself!" 

"What... do you mean?" 

"Kari, don't you realise, the digital world is afraid?" 

"Afraid... yes..." 

"Fear is the ultimate darkness. Only the light, hope, can beat that." 

"Gatomon, I'm sorry, I don't understand..." 

"You're feeling the fear of the digital world. Kari, our world - and it is OUR world, both of our's - is in pain. You've always... always... been tied to the digital world." 

"But I'm not bound, Gatomon. You make it sound like a bad thing." 

"It's your love that binds you, Kari. You'll never escape being a part of the digital world, because you care about all the Digimon so much." 

"Gatomon, why can't I see you?" 

"Kari, you have to remember your power! Before we even met, before you even went to the digital world, your power was inside you, and you USED it!" 

"G-Gatomon! Don't leave! Please! I'm scared to be alone!" 

"You're not alone, Kari... please remember your power..." 

... 

It's morning. So early that it's barely light, and it's cold. It was... just a dream. It was a dream. But my heart is beating quickly. Nobody else is awake - kind of amazing considering how loudly Matt and Takeru snore. I'd better go back to sleep. But it's cold, and I'm afraid. I lean in closer to Takeru and put my head on his chest. He makes a snorting noise in his sleep and unconsciously moves his hand to my back. Gatomon was right when she said I wasn't alone. 

But... what did she mean by my real power, that I used? 

There is one thing she is right about though. I am tied to the digital world. Sometimes, when I stop long enough to think about it, I can almost... feel its heartbeat inside my head. I never even told Takeru. It made me think I was going insane, but now, suddenly, I realise what it is, what I've always known it was. 

And the digital world is in pain. I have to remember my power, whatever that is. If I can save this world that I love, I have to do it. 

   [1]: mailto:leto@nysa.cx



	7. To the city

Of course I didn't make up most of the insults used in this part; I gleaned them from all sortsa places. 

If you're interested, here are some little pen sketches I drew of the characters, so you can see what they look like in this fic. ^_^. They're mostly pretty crappy and pretty simple, but you can get the idea. ^^;; As for colours, Adrienne has red-blonde hair and brown eyes, Amy has blonde hair and blue eyes, Nathan has black hair and eyes. Webmon is mostly a dark blue with light blue webbing, Feathermon is mostly a kind of faded red, Petalmon is varying shades of green, Spritemon is white with red stars, feet, hands and eyes.

**[Joe][1] with Adrienne, Amy and Nathan**  
**[Cody,][2] Yolei and Ken**  
**[Adrienne/ ][3]Nathan with Spritemon (his Rookie partner)**  
**[Takeru,][4] Cody, Koushiro, Matt, Joe**  
**[Matt with Ripumon/][5]Joe/Ken**  
**[Sora/][6]Kari with Takeru**  
**[Yolei,][7] Mimi, Adrienne and Amy**  
**[Tai][8] with Terri (his fiancee)**  
**[Mimi,][9] Sora and Yolei**  
**[Koushiro][10] and Matt**  
**[Adrienne][11] and Nathan flying on Petalmon (Adrienne's Champion Digimon)**  
**[Webmon][12] (Amy's Champion Digimon)**  
**[Feathermon][13] (Nathan's Champion Digimon)**  
**[Cody,][14] Yolei, Takeru and Kari (ignore Takeru's hair ^^;)**  
**[Davis][15]**   
**[Mimi,][16] Sora and Tai**

**Prove yourself!**  
by [Leto][17]  
**Second day: morning**

--Gatomon's POV-- 

Sometimes I have strange dreams, and I think they're because of Kari. Last night I dreamed I was talking to her, and it felt so real. I wish I could see her again. I hope she's alright without me, but I have a sudden gut feeling that our humans are in trouble, maybe even somewhere in digiworld. 

I'm definitely not saying that to the others, though! Especially Wormmon! The last thing they need is to worry more. All of us are good enough at that as is! 

Wormmon, Agumon and I managed to meet up after all us Digimon got split up. We haven't been able to find anybody else. I'm starting to think none of the others are even in this country. If they're even still alive. 

The digital world is just crawling with virus Digimon. This part of it is, anyway. You can't walk for five minutes without encountering one. The three of us are just doing our best. 

--Matt's POV--

Ken had wondered what was going to happen next, but nothing did. Those of us whose crests reacted weren't sucked up into the sky or anything. The evening just continued on uneventfully, we slept peacefully enough - or as peacefully as was possible with TK's chronic snoring... 

Now it seems I'm being woken up by that little digital pipsqueak bouncing on my face. It is very very annoying. Go away!

"Mamaaaaaa!" 

Do I really have to talk? I hate mornings. It's such an effort... 

"Purimon, grrway," I manage. 

I don't know why I bothered.

"You're awaaaaake!" he chirps, jumping up and down on my chest, "now we'll have wots of fun! Will you tell me about mama being a digideshtined?"

I sigh. Looks like there's no getting out of this. With an effort, I pull myself up and rub my eyes. Most of the others are up. Yolei is attempting to start a fire one-handed, cursing loudly at her lack of success. Ken is watching her with a little half-smirk on his face. Tai and Koushiro are leaning over the laptop, discussing something. 

Mimi is sitting slumped against a log, with an "if you talk to me this early in the morning I'll pound your face in, if I can be bothered expending the energy" expression on her face. Sora is combing Joe's hair for him - hahah... looks funny from yesterday, kind of like he's been electrocuted.

I think my brother's awake but Kari is asleep with her head on his chest so he can't get up. I just don't get their relationship. 

Cody's asleep, dead to the world with a textbook open on his chest and a little smile on his face. I remember what high school was like; it must feel like heaven for him to be able to get a full night's sleep for once. 

"Hey, Matt," says Sora, "I see Purimon woke you up." 

"It's about time you woke up," says Tai, "that little thing has been squeaking at you for about twenty minutes now." 

"It woke ME up," says Koushiro. 

"Well, mama'sh awake now sho it'sh all good!" says Purimon. I don't have the heart to yell at the poor little guy, but I'm not at my best with hyperactive children early in the morning.

"DAMN! Ow ow ow ow ow ow!" 

Yolei leaps away from the not-fire, flapping one hand madly in front of her face. Her other arm is still in the sling, but she's holding her glasses in one hand.

"Yolei, just what are you trying to do?" asks Takeru, mildly, from underneath Kari. 

Yolei 'hmpfs'. "Well, heaven forbid the actual firewood burn, the only thing that gets lit up is my hand!"

"Why don't you use matches?" 

"Well, we might need them in an emergency and the glasses thing worked on Lord of the Flies."

"Wasn't that the book where the owner of the glasses got killed by a rock?" asks Ken. 

Yolei shoots him a glare - those two are always at each other's throat - and ignores the question. "Burn, burn, burn! Stupid wood!" 

Mimi looks at her blankly. "Yolei, you can't burn those plants. You just pulled them off living bushes, and they have too high a water content." 

Yolei glares. "You could have told me that sooner!" 

"But then we'd have missed the entertainment," says Ken. 

She strides over to him - Yolei is a formidable woman - stamps on his foot and walks back. 

"Forget the fire," she says, and puts her glasses back on, "most of us are awake now, let's just go visit that city." 

Kari mumbles something. Guess she's starting to wake up too. She doesn't look very happy, somehow. 

"I can't see patients looking like this," mutters Joe, "would you trust someone with hair like this with *your* life?" 

"Oh, stop complaining Joe," says Sora, "there's nothing wrong with it... uh... well... it could be worse. If you're that worried about it we could try to disguise it." 

Joe looks unimpressed. "Disguise it with what?" 

"Well, we could wrap one of your bandages around it and pretend you had some kind of accident," she suggests. 

"Or we could always try more pretty flowers," says Yolei, sweetly. 

"Or I could give you a free haircut and makeover," said Mimi, with an evil look.

"On second thoughts, looking like a deranged, frizzy-haired lunatic is suddenly not without its appeal."

"Don't forget unshaven!" says Mimi happily.

"And dishevelled!" agrees Yolei.

"And beat up!" continues Mimi.

"And that's quite enough," says Joe, in his best authoritarian, I-am-a-person-in-a-respected-position-behold-my-words voice. He can't really pull it off, given that he *does* look like a derelict and has pollen in his hair.

Purimon seems to suddenly decide it doesn't like me ignoring it for so long and he climbs onto my head.

"Mamaaa," he says, "ish there bweakfasht?" 

Tai looks up. "Breakfast? Yeah, Koushiro's just been scanning the area for food. There should be a banana tree just on the way to the city." 

It's weird how Tai and Koushiro sometimes seem like the only ones who are focused on what we're doing. But... Tai's always looking off into space with this weird look on his face. I should talk to him soon; I'm his friend. Maybe it will make my crest react again. 

"That's good enough for me," says Mimi, starting to look a little more energetic, "ready to go, everyone?"

"Mmm," sighs Kari, and sits up. She stares into the distance for a moment as though thinking about something. Takeru sits up too. 

"Hey Cody, we're leaving now," says Koushiro, folding up the laptop. 

Cody twitches in his sleep. 

"Cody," repeats Koushiro, "CODY!" He nudges him with his foot. 

"You're not doing it right," says Yolei, walking over and leaning down over her old friend.

"CODYYYYYYYY!" she roars, "YOU HAVE A TEST STARTING IN FIIIIIVE MINUTES!" 

Well, that sure did the trick - and deafened us in the process. Cody's eyes snap open and he's on his feet, looking around defensively. 

"I'm awake, I'm awake! I won't be late! I've studied! I... oh. Very amusing, Yolei." 

"Let's go, Sleepy," says Yolei. Cody rubs his head tiredly, and bends to put his textbooks away. 

"Hey, we've got all the Seven Dwarves here," says Kari, "Cody's Sleepy, Joe's Doc, Takeru's Dopey -" 

"Hey!" 

"Mimi's Grumpy -" 

"I am not!" 

"Purimon's Happy, and, umm... Cody's Bashful." 

"You already did me," mutters Cody, and touches his head again, "but I might be Sneezy if I stay here surrounded by these exotic plants for much longer."

"You know, sometimes I wonder if you and Joe are related," I can't help saying.

"Nah, they can't be related, Cody has normal hair," says Mimi. Joe frowns at her. 

At least we're walking now - I always feel better when we're actually doing something. We soon find the bananas, which are on the top of 30-foot-tall branchless trees. 

"Um," says Sora. Nobody needs to say anything else. 

"I could try to climb it," suggests Ken.

"Don't be ridiculous, you'll kill yourself," says Yolei. 

"Maybe we could chop down one of the trees somehow?" suggests Tai. 

"Don't be an environmental hazard, Tai," says Mimi, "haven't you ever heard of conservation? You can't just chop down one whole living tree for your own selfish -" 

"Okay okay," says Tai, "not another one of those green freak lectures, PLEASE Mimi." 

"Pu-ri-mon will get food down!" says Purimon. 

"And just how do you plan to do that?" asks Kari. 

Purimon dives at the tree, his little legs fastening him to the trunk like suction cups. He slinks his way up the tree as we all watch. Guess he is useful for something. A moment later there's a shower of bananas. 

"Ow! Ow!" shouts Yolei, "watch it! Hey! That one hit me on PURPOSE!" 

"Pu-ri-mon ish comig bag down nowww!" shouts Purimon, sounding more indinstinct than usual with a banana in his mouth. He poises himself at the end of a banana leaf.

"No, don't jump!" I shout - too late. He's falling - he's calling something - what?

"Pu-ri-mon, digivolve tooo..." 

Digivolving?

"Ripumon!" 

He changes less than a foot above the ground, and hovers there on large wings. So now he's an in-training? Now he's a little red bat-creature with webbed white wings that seem a bit big for his body. He looks up at me with big black eyes, and smiles hugely. 

"Did you like that?" he asks, "did you see that? I digivolved, I digivolved!"

"Ripumon," says Koushiro, reading off his Digimon Analyser, "a good-natured bat Digimon with hidden potential. Little information is known." 

Hidden potential?

"I'm a big tough in-training now, mother!" 

"Mother?" I repeat. 

"Well, now that I'm older, I can't very well call you something as childish as 'mama', riiiight?" 

I can't suppress a sigh. "You do know I'm not a female, right." 

"But you have long hair like an Angewomon," Ripumon says. 

"I hardly think it's that long," I snap. Just what's wrong with my hair? I could be a Pantene model! Everyone else is trying not to laugh through mouthfuls of banana. I'm just trying not to throttle Ripumon. 

"But Mother, you're so pretty!" 

At that, Ken laughs so hard he spits banana all over the ground. That makes everyone else laugh even harder. Koushiro's almost crying and even Cody's shoulders are shaking. 

One thing's for sure, this brings home just how well-suited my real partner is. Gabumon would never make me feel stupid in front of everyone! 

--General POV-- 

The digidestined made their way slowly down the cliff toward the city they had seen the night before. Kari walked as though in a daze, occasionally touching her crest. Takeru kept an eye on her to make sure she didn't dazedly walk right off a steep part. Koushiro, for once, was not holding his laptop in front of him as he walked, but looking all around with great interest as he edged down. 

Joe's injuries had healed, but Cody's arms were aggravating him; he winced as he handled some of the more awkward climbs, swinging himself down on his arms or hugging trees to stop himself falling over. He didn't let anyone else see it though. Occasionally he paused to help Ken carry Yolei; Yolei was having trouble climbing down with her injured arm and Ken was mostly helping her, but sometimes there were parts beyond them. 

Ripumon fluttered around Matt's head, getting on his nerves, but the little Digimon *was* helpful at times, occasionally helping to carry people's bags and purses down the steeps. 

"This is a lot steeper than it looked," puffed Sora, "I really shouldn't have gotten so out of shape." 

"Well, we're halfway there now," said Joe, also breathing hard. 

"I sure hope there's a Starbucks in this city," said Mimi, "I just don't feel quite awake!" 

"At least you sound like you're in a better mood than last night," said Sora. 

"Last night? Oh, last night! Yes, I'm sorry about that. I was in a bad mood." 

"We did notice that, yes," said Takeru. 

"How is everybody feeling?" asked Kari. 

"Never better," said Cody quickly. 

"I'm alright," said Joe. 

"Just peachy," said Mimi. 

"Whose stupid idea was this anyway," muttered Yolei. Her arm was hurting again; she was taking care with it but there was fresh blood starting to show through the bandages. 

"Don't worry, Yolei," said Ken, "I think the worst of it's behind us." 

"I've got some painkillers in my briefcase," offered Joe, "and there might be a hospital down in the city." 

"I am NOT going to hospital," said Yolei, "come on, let's just keep going." 

They did. 

--Amy's POV-- 

You know, I don't like the digiworld very much. I guess we hafta be here, for some reason, but it's not very fun. I guess it's better than school, but not much. At least in school you don't get hurt. 

There's s'posed to be a Mega Digimon somewhere around, but we sure don't know where it is. If we beat it, won't all this bad stuff go away? Right now we're just killing every mean Digimon we come across, and there sure are a lot of them. We had four big battles just today, and it's not even lunch time yet! 

And I dunno where the Great Enlightened One is, either. That button on our d-power won't even work, just this stupid static stuff comes up on the screen! 

So what are we s'posed to be doing? Right now Addy and Nathy are talking about it but I don't even understand everything they're saying. I hate it when they leave me out just 'cos they're older. But then I'm kinda glad they're here to make the decisions. I don't wanna have to work out what to do. I don't know what to do anyway. 

"I don't think these Ultimate Digimon are working for anyone," says Nathan. 

Adrienne frowns. "Yeah, wasn't part of the problem of the digital world that the balance got totally out of whack and so all these virus Digimon have been cropping up everywhere? Makes it sound like it was all some accident, we've just gotta kill them until there aren't so many left." 

"But more new ones keep appearing," says Spritemon, "it's very annoying!" 

"Supposedly this stupid Mega's just waiting to get its butt kicked so the balance'll go back to normal," says Addy, "d'you think we can beat a Mega Digimon?" 

"Of course we can!" says Floramon, "of coooourse we can! We have my infinite beauty and power behind us, and now all of us can go Ultimate! With the three of us working together, we'll do it easy as pie! If we can find more allies we'll be all set! Who says it's just the three of us that hafta save the world? Maybe Veemon can help, and I bet The Great Enlightened One has magnificent power he's never revealed yet! And there are the other digidestined, AND I'm sure there are still vaccine mon hiding around here somewhere!" 

She's right I bet, but *where* are they all? 

Webmon got to digivolve to Ultimate just a few minutes ago, so now I'm carrying her In-training form. I don't mind really but it's hard enough walking so far without having to carry extra things. But Sapphiramon was really cool! I'm so lucky to have such a good friend! 

I guess that's one thing - one of the ONLY things - that's good about this world. Addy's not so mean to me, at least she looks out for me sometimes, so she's not being a TOTAL pain ALL the time. And Nathy's usually nice. And our Digimon are pretty cool, especially *mine*, although Floramon sometimes talks too much and Spritemon as Pagumon is kind of rude. 

The thing is though, we haven't had major fights. It's not like at school where you get a new best friend every week, and make fun of each other behind each other's backs. It's not like that here, we really stick together. 

Another good thing is that we get a whole bunch of time that other people don't get, so I can really practise and practise my ballet routine without having to worry about the deadline! When we get out of here I'm gonna be the best performer in the whole show! 

Now Nathy and Addy are talking about our crests. I don't know what they're talking about. But I think our crests are weird. The ones Joe talked about sounded much cooler. I didn't even know what our crests were, I didn't know what the words meant. I still don't really get it. 

Charity? What's that supposed to mean? Mine just reacted when I was worried about Webmon. She was sad about not being able to digivolve, and I think she felt bad for not being able to protect me so well. Then she got injured and I was scared and my crest went off. I don't know why. 

I looked it up in the dictionary when we got home, it said charity was about goodwill and love and kindness and stuff. Love and kindness, they were two of the first crests, weren't they? 

--General POV-- 

The ex-digidestined passed through a small grove of trees and saw the city before them, tall buildings peeking out over the top of a great wall. 

"There appears to be a wall here," observed Koushiro. 

"Thanks for the update," said Yolei. 

"No way can we climb over that," said Ken. 

"I could!" said Ripumon helpfully. 

"There must be an entrance somewhere," said Matt. 

"Oh goodie, more walking," said Mimi. 

They began to make their way along outside the perimeter of the city. Before long they came to a break in the wall where there was a turnstile and a window. A face grinned at them from the window. 

"Hi, how you goin'? Can I help you with somethin'?" 

"We were hoping to go into the city," said Tai. "Could you let us through, please?" 

"Do you have a letter of referral?" 

"Huh?" 

Joe brightened. "Sure, I do!" 

"Well, let's see it then!" 

Everyone looked at each other quizzically as Joe began rifling through his briefcase and pulled out a sheet of paper with a flourish. The Digimon guard came out from behind his window box and took it, skimming it with his eyes. The digidestined took the chance to get a good look at him; a tall, vaguely human-like creature with blue fur, long yellow hair and a tail. It seemed to be wearing a pirate's suit. 

"What do you think I am, an idiot?" snapped the Digimon, throwing the paper back at Joe, "this is an employment referral!" 

Joe sweatdropped. "It was worth a try..." 

"Is there any way we could get into the city without a letter, Mr, uh...?" asked Sora. 

"Monkeymon, the name's Monkeymon. And there's only one way you can get in without authorisation. I'm not really s'posed to do it but it's so much fun!" 

"Well, what is it?" 

"Well, if you want to be granted access to the city, first you have to beat me!" 

"With pleasure!" said Matt, balling his hands into fists. 

"Nuh uh!" said Monkeymon, "not a violent battle! Battle of the words! Who will represent your group?" 

"What do you mean by battle of the words?" 

"An insult contest, of course! Now which of you wishes to challenge me!" 

Everyone looked at each other and nodded simultaneously. No question about that. They all said in unison: "Yolei." 

Yolei cracked her knuckles. "You betcha, I can easily out-insult this stupid, scrawny, smug-faced, screwed up, sorry sap of a simian." 

"Look who's talkin', you have the intelligence of an amoebamon and half the charm! What you lack in intelligence, you make up for in stupidity!" 

"You're so ugly that when you were born, the doctor slapped your mother!" 

"*You're* so ugly that when you try to go into a store they point to the 'no dogs allowed' sign!" 

"You look like you comb your hair with an eggbeater!" 

"Your only flair is in your nostrils!" 

"I've seen better-looking faces on a pirate flag! Don't you need a license to be that ugly?" 

"You wouldn't look so bad if it weren't for your face... you know, for such an old hag, you've really kept your figure - and then added some!" 

"You shouldn't go out in public, people will think it's Halloween." 

"Look who's talking, you're so ugly that when you walk into a store they turn off their surveillance cameras!" 

"You're so stupid that when you go to the restaurant, you complain that you can't get the soup to stay on the fork!" 

"Oh, brains aren't everything. In fact, in your case, they're nothing! I don't know what makes you so dumb, but it really works!" 

"They say what you don't know can't hurt you, in that case, you must be invincible! Aren't you depriving a village somewhere of an idiot?" 

"You took an IQ test and it came out negative!" 

"You make me want to puke!" 

"You make me think somebody already did!" 

"You're one to talk, *your* face has all the charm of a rotting fish, you big-mouthed, dim-witted, slimy, pussy, festering carbuncle!" 

"Ugh," said Joe, looking slightly green, "you're making me nauseous." 

Tai rolled his eyes. "Joe, how can you be so squeamish when you spend half the week cutting up dead bodies?" 

"Well, we usually call it an inflammation of the subcutaneous tissue, not a 'festering carbuncle'." 

Everyone facefaulted. Yolei and Monkeymon ignored him, and Yolei continued. 

"I really shouldn't be participating in a battle of the wits - I don't like to fight an unarmed mon." 

"You couldn't find a man if you went into -" 

"Don't even finish that sentence! Thou art a knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lilly-liver'd, action-taking knave; a rogue; one-trunk inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in a way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition!" 

The others applauded this little speech. Monkeymon sweatdropped. 

"Not bad," he said grudgingly, "okay fine, you win. Enjoy your stay!" 

Yolei smirked and turned to Koushiro. "Hah, and you laughed at me for taking English Lit! You said it was a waste of my talents and no normal person would do it, didn't you! Who's laughing now?" 

Koushiro said contritely, "I'm sorry, Yolei, I should have taken into account the factor of meeting an insult-collecting pirate monkey monster." 

"Yes, you should have," said Yolei, satisfied. 

They filed in through the turnstile and found themselves in a digital metropolis... 

   [1]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove13.jpg
   [2]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove3.jpg
   [3]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove9.jpg
   [4]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove14.jpg
   [5]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove6.jpg
   [6]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove2.jpg
   [7]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove17.jpg
   [8]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove11.jpg
   [9]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove16.jpg
   [10]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove15.jpg
   [11]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove8.jpg
   [12]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove5.jpg
   [13]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove4.jpg
   [14]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove12.jpg
   [15]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove10.jpg
   [16]: http://www.users.on.net/cstanley/files/prove1.jpg
   [17]: mailto:leto@nysa.cx



	8. Digital metropolis, part 1

This is almost starting to turn into a comedic fic. ^_^;;

And although I'm unimaginatively naming the actual fic chapters after when they occur, in the fanfiction.net chapter menu I'll change the names, just so that it's easier to know which chapter's which. ^_^;

**Prove yourself!**  
by [Leto][1]  
**The second day: afternoon, part 1**

--General POV--

"Alright," said Tai, "I think we're going to have to split up again, everybody. Mimi's eyes are spelling out the word 'mall' and I really don't want to get in the way of girls and clothes." 

Mimi grinned. "Actually, being this size kind of takes some of the fun out of clothes shopping, but I agree with the splitting up idea." 

"We can go as groups of two or three," said Sora, "I think that would be the smartest idea." 

"Do any of us have any digidollars?" asked Joe. 

Ken and Koushiro, residents of the digital world, fumbled in their pockets. Ken produced a few low-value coins. 

"Sorry," said Koushiro, who didn't even have that, "I ran out of the house without my wallet when I heard there was news about digiworld." 

"So how are we supposed to buy anything without money?!" said Mimi. 

"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it," said Yolei impatiently, "I want to find a library." 

Everyone looked rather surprised. 

"Yolei, studying?" asked Ken, "what's next, Koushiro flunking a test?" 

"For your information," said Yolei, "I am quite interested in literature and I'd be interested to see what this world has to offer, okAY?" 

"Big assignment due today?" said Koushiro dryly. 

Yolei sighed. "Bingo." 

"Today meaning yesterday?" asked Matt. 

"Yeah." 

"Well, if it's alright with everybody else, I'd like to go with Yolei," said Cody, "I have study to do as well, and I would love to see what sorts of things I could find out in a digital world library." 

"I'll join you," said Matt, "if there's a library, it'll probably have computers. It'd be cool to check some things." 

"Are you coming too, Koushiro?" asked Yolei. 

"No, I've been to digital world libraries before," said Koushiro, "I think I'd just like to walk around and take a look at everything." 

"Sounds good to me," said Joe, "I'll tag along." 

The two nodded to the rest of the group. 

"We'll meet back here at 4pm," said Yolei, "before it gets dark, but it gives us enough time to scope out the city and all." 

"See you, then," said Tai, and the five of them moved away. 

"Personally, I liked the mall idea," confessed Sora, "I'd love to see what sorts of clothes they sell at a mall here, and window shopping is fun." 

"I'll come too," said Kari, "I'd love some new clothes, if we can figure out how to get some without money." 

"If Kari's going, I'm going," said Takeru. 

"Suuuure, it'll be fun," said Kari, with a slightly evil look, "you can carry our bags and wait hours for us to try on clothes." 

"Uhh... on second thoughts, I'm sure you'll be fine without me for just a few hours, right Kari?" 

Sora and Kari laughed and headed off. 

"I for one know what *I'm* after," said Mimi firmly, "and that is - food!" 

"For once we are of one mind," said Tai, "let's wander around 'til we find some place." 

Those two ran off, leaving Ken and Takeru looking at each other. 

"Looks like you're stuck with me," said Ken. 

"Well, you're not as good-looking as Kari, but I guess I can handle your company for a few hours," said Takeru. 

The two friends grinned at each other. 

--General POV - Koushiro and Joe-- 

The two men walked along in companionable silence for a minute or so. 

"It's been a long time since we've seen each other," said Koushiro, "it seems strange to only be saying that after two days, but there were so many preoccupations then..." 

"It's good to be back," said Joe automatically. Koushiro glanced at him. 

"You said that in a funny tone, Joe. Are you glad or aren't you?" 

Joe frowned. "Well, of course it's good to see all of you again. But I don't feel right being in digiworld, especially under the circumstances." 

Koushiro didn't say anything; he was waiting for Joe to continue. Several years ago he would have pestered the other with questions but had since learned better. 

"Sora and I were exchanging letters for a few years and we talked about things... it sounded to me like almost all of you guys were living in constant contact with digiworld, like you couldn't forget about it. And I mean, it'll always be a part of me too... but my life's shaping up well without it. It'd be too awful to never see Gomamon again, but... I don't belong here." 

Koushiro stopped walking and Joe turned to look at him. 

"What's up, Izzy?" 

"I'm the opposite. I don't understand how you can just move on with your life as though our adventures never happened." 

"Izzy, it's been, what, twelve, thirteen years since we first went to digiworld? It was just a few months out of our lives..." 

"Yeah, but... I felt as though my life before the digital world was just... killing time." 

Joe exhaled. "So you're pretty worried about being kicked out?" 

"If you had to put it that bluntly," said Koushiro, wincing, "then yes. Joe, I don't think you understand - my life is in this world." 

"That's right, you were living here before the gate closed, weren't you?" 

"It's not just that. I mean, I've been doing a lot of research into the digital world, and being with Tentomon, and the other digidestined... if this world was closed to me, where would my life be?" 

Joe didn't know what to say; he just stood there awkwardly for a few moments with Koushiro looking at him out of his sharp black eyes. He felt that the younger man was waiting for him to say something, so he blurted out the first thing that came into his mind. 

"Isn't there something or someone in the real world that you love?" 

"Someone..." Koushiro went a little red. "Well... there may be reasons for me to spend time in our world..." 

Joe's interest was caught - Koushiro blushing? "Reaaally? This is a side of you I haven't seen! How come none of us knew about this person? What's her name?" 

"Really, Joe, now you sound like Mimi," said Koushiro. He knew that saying that was sure to stop Joe from probing any further. 

Sure enough, Joe looked flustered and said, "why must people say that?!" 

The two were walking again but the street they were on did not seem to be particularly active; it was full of identical tall buildings and not a mon in sight. 

Koushiro looked down at his chest. "You know, I used to love my crest. I thought it was prodigious that my own strong point could be used to save the world. But now I hate it." 

"Why?" 

"Knowledge," he said slowly, "knowledge. It's difficult... I'm unsure of what I can do to provoke a reaction. A crest like Courage, that's easy - you simply do brave things. Friendship, Sincerity, Reliability... I don't envy Kari or TK, but it just seems as though the rest of you have much more straightforward duties than I do." 

"I don't think they're supposed to be duties," said Joe, "Izzy, please take my advice. Don't look on this as a competition - we don't do things to force our crests to react, they can only do it naturally. You've already proven that your crest still works. Don't envy the others, either. Knowledge is the perfect crest for you, whether it seems easy or not. And you know... it's not always so easy being reliable." 

They rounded a corner; the street ahead of them was exactly the same as the one they had just come down. The two pushed up their glasses at the same time, and blinked in unison. 

"Didn't we just come down this street?" asked Joe. 

"Weird," said Koushiro, "very unusual." He automatically began to shrug his laptop off his shoulders and unpack it. As it booted up, he spoke slowly. "Joe... it's good to have you back with us." 

--General POV - Tai and Mimi-- 

"It feelsh shooo good to eat normal food!" 

Tai nodded in agreement; his mouth was too full to allow any answer that didn't spray food all over the table. 

Tai and Mimi had found a Monchie's and ordered liberally. Neither bothered thinking about what was going to happen when their bill was brought. They just grabbed their dishes from the waitress - imaginatively named Waitressmon - and commenced shovelling. 

Mimi swallowed her mouthful and started scraping sauce out the bottom of the jar with her finger. 

"Ever ladylike," smirked Tai, before engulfing half a hamburger in one bite. 

"Of course," agreed Mimi, picking up her milkshake in both hands - with the pinkies out. 

"Ahhhh," said Tai, unbuttoning his belt and swinging back in his chair, "now that was a meal." 

"Fine cuisine at its most fine," agreed Mimi, daintily pecking at her mouth with a napkin. 

The two sighed in happy unison. 

"It's been a while, hasn't it," said Tai finally. 

"Yeah, it sure has," agreed Mimi. 

A pause. 

"Since what?" she asked. 

"Since us two hung out." 

"Oh. Yeah. Living in different countries kind of does that." 

Tai smiled. "Well, that's what's so cool about digiworld, right? Geography's not an issue." 

"If it's not an issue, then where are our Digimon?" 

"You know what I meant." 

"I suppose so." 

"I guess I've been caught up in wedding plans lately. Can you believe there's only two months to go? Only two months until Terri is MRS KAMIYA! Mimi, have I ever told you about what Terri's like?" 

"Tai, you've told everyone about what Terri's like." 

"She's the most amaaazing person. She's got this great shiny black hair and the most amazing eyes. She's just the most perfect person in the whole world." 

Mimi could see that Tai was lost to her, so she launched into her own reverie. 

"Well, Michael's one of the best guys a girl could ever ask for. He's always suddenly saying nice things and he never gets angry. And being filthy rich doesn't hurt one little bit, not that I'm that shallow of course!" 

"She has this great little way of going kind of cross-eyed when she's worried about something..." 

"He never made me stay around the house being a housewife, he's happy for me to follow my own fabulous career..." 

"She gets along really well with my family..." 

"He's got this way of looking serious for ages and then suddenly smiling..." 

"...whole face lights up..." 

"..warm blue eyes..." 

"...taught me how to..." 

"...took me out for dinner..." 

The two carried on their conversation without paying heed to a single thing the other was saying. They were both lost in thought... 

--General POV - Kari and Sora-- 

WIN 1000 DIGIDOLLARS IN GIFT VOUCHERS! 

So said the sign under which a Bakemon was standing - floating, really. On the table in front of him was a small stack of vouchers, a cash box and a lotto machine. The idea was that hopefuls paid five digidollars and chose a number. If their number came up (highly unlikely), they won. 

"We'll pay you back after we win," offered Kari. 

The Bakemon was evidently not of the highest intelligence. 

"After you win... heh, you must be pretty confident... well, pick a number." 

Sora and Kari conferred for a moment and then said in unison, "21, please." 

"Right you are," said the Bakemon, twisting the crank on the lotto machine, "let's see if we have a match!" 

The balls jingled around in their case before one popped out and rolled into the shaft. The Bakemon extended a blue hand and lifted it out for inspection. 

"Heyyy," he said, "this isn't the number 21 at all!" 

He held out the ball with "53" imprinted on it. 

"Darn," the girls sighed in unison. 

"Well, it was worth a try," said Sora. 

"Wait a second," said Bakemon slowly, "if you don't win... that means I don't get my money back!" 

He began cranking the lotto shaft with gusto, so that another ball came out, and another, and another. Soon the ball shaft was full. 

"Mmm... no 21 in here," said the Bakemon, tossing the balls back into the shaft and trying again. The girls wondered why he put the balls back in if he didn't want them to be drawn again, but decided not to push their luck by saying anything. 

On the third try, 21 finally came up. 

"Ta-da!" said the happy Bakemon, "congratulations, you've won the prize!" 

"Yaaaay!" shouted Sora and Kari in unison, high-fiving. 

The Bakemon pushed the ream of vouchers toward them. The girls began rifling through it, looking for one they could give to the Bakemon. 

"Ectoplasmic sculpting treatment to the value of fifteen digidollars?" read Sora, "ew... would you like this one, Mr Bakemon?" 

"15 digidollars? Wow, really? Thank you so much! I'm gonna enjoy this!" 

The Bakemon flew off, cackling, leaving the girls with a lot of money to spend and a whole mall to spend it in. 

"Well, tricking Bakemon has gotten even easier since the last time I tried," said Sora. 

"This stuff looks great," said Kari, flicking through the books, "fur-dressing, hair-dressing... hmm..." 

"Too bad Joe isn't here, he could have used that," said Sora, smiling. 

"I should get my hair bleached again," said Kari, "the roots are coming through. And oh! Do you think I should get a nose-ring?" 

Sora sweatdropped. "Kari, you're not quite my image of a punk." 

"So why should punks get all the fun? Or maybe I'll get my eyebrow pierced. Or another hole in my ears, like Yolei." 

Sora opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it, and instead blurted out: "Takeru has an eyebrow ring, doesn't he?" 

Kari blinked. "You know he does. What are you trying to say, Sora?" 

--General POV - Yolei, Cody and Matt-- 

"Cody, could we keep it moving, maybe?" 

Matt and Yolei were getting a little impatient. They were trying to walk down the street but Cody kept stopping to look at things. Right now he was staring at a wall - a plain brick wall - as though it were the most fascinating thing in the world. 

"But this architecture -" 

"Nobody cares about architecture," said Yolei. Cody was going to protest so Matt grabbed him by the collar and started dragging him. After they had moved away from the wall, Cody shrugged out of his grip and walked on his own - for about three feet, when he caught sight of a Digimon flying overhead and stood staring up at the sky long after it had flown past. 

Yolei, Ripumon and Matt sighed in unison. 

"Ripumon is getting booooored," volunteered the Digimon from atop Matt's head. 

"Cody, maybe we'll just meet you at the library," said Yolei, "if we don't meet up, we can always catch up at 4 when we go to meet the rest of the group." 

"Mmm," agreed Cody, absent-mindedly. 

The two impatient and uncurious digidestined moved on without him. They did not stop to ask every Digimon they met detailed questions, they did not do more than glance at walls, and they took minimal interest in their surroundings. In short, they made progress. 

"Heyyy, Matt," said Yolei suddenly, "you're single, right?" 

--General POV - Takeru and Ken-- 

"So where are we going?" asked Ken. 

"Three guesses," said Takeru, "we're two young, good-looking, eligible bachelors..." 

"We are NOT going to a Digimon strip club," said Ken flatly. 

Takeru sweatdropped. "I wasn't going to suggest that. Uggh... I don't even wanna know! No, I meant a bar." 

"I don't know, Takeru. We can't pay, and I don't think the others are going to be too happy if we turned up tripping over ourselves." 

"So, what's your crest, Reliability? Live a little! We'll work something out!" 

They passed a busking Digimon who was playing a harmonica and had a hat on the ground in front of him. The Digimon, judging by his size, was a Champion, and looked vaguely like a humanoid frill-necked lizard. He looked up at them as they passed and nudged his hat hopefully. 

"Sorry, buddy," said Takeru, as they walked past. 

"Now there's an idea," joked Ken, "we could try busking for money." 

"Hey, that is an idea..." 

"Hey! Hey, Takeru, I was only joking - what are you doing? - put your jacket back on!" 

Takeru was taking off his jacket and lying it on the ground in front of him. He sat behind it, leaning against the wall, and mussed up his own hair. 

"Come on Ken," he said, "now, how's your singing voice?" 

Ken just looked at him. 

--General POV - in England-- 

Faye Forrester, a slim redhead in her mid thirties, gave a grunting sound and rolled over in bed to look at the clock. From the darkness glowed the green numbers "3:14". 

She sighed and rubbed at her eyes before sluggishly slipping out of the bedclothes, trying not to disturb her husband. It would take a while to get back to sleep; she might as well check on the children. 

Adrienne and Amy had been acting *strangely* all week. Since they got home from the last day of school, after that storm, it was as though they had grown up somehow, and had new secrets. They kept looking at each other meaningfully and saying things Faye didn't understand. They'd brought home these two ugly, bizarre-looking toys, and spent every day out with that boy from down the street, Nathan. 

Now that day they had come home and gone straight to bed, saying they didn't feel well. That in itself was strange, but they didn't seem to be exhibiting any symptoms of a cold, or a stomachache. Still, she'd better make sure they were sleeping okay and didn't need anything. They were still her little girls. 

But as she opened the door to their room, she just froze. Two empty beds. The house felt entirely too still; she was sure that they weren't in the bathroom or kitchen. And - her sharp eyes caught it - the stuffed toys and their bags were gone. 

Leaning against the cold doorframe for a moment, she took a few breaths and made her way back to her bedroom. 

"Simon," she hissed, shaking her husband, "Simon! Wake up!" 

"Mrggh," he groaned, looking up at her, half-asleep. 

"Simon! The girls are gone!" 

"S'nice dear," he mumbled. 

"SIMON! Wake up or I'll roll you onto the floor! I said the girls are GONE!" 

"G... gone. Yes dear. Huh? The girls are gone? What do you mean? Gone where?!" 

"I just don't know!" 

The same words kept repeating inanely in her head - I hope they're alright, I hope they're alright, I hope they're alright. 

--General POV - Adrienne's group-- 

Adrienne and Amy were, at that particular moment, not very alright. In fact, Adrienne was flying through the air at about 100kmph, clutching for dear life the tail of a winged green horse. 

Emeramon was flying frantically, spinning and whizzing out of the way of enemy fire. 

"Emeramon, slow down!" Adrienne managed to gasp. 

"Can't!" cried Emeramon, banking sharply and changing directions, "if I slow down we're french fries!" 

"I do enjoy french fries!" called their enemy - an AeroSeadramon - "Air River! Air RIVER!" 

"Mother Nature's -" began Emeramon, but had to cut her attack short to dodge another opposing barrage. 

"How long do you think you can keep it up?" sneered AeroSeadramon. Despite the high speeds at which he was moving, he didn't seem to be out of breath. "Soon you'll be just like your little friends!" 

Nathan sat on the ground, holding one arm, and glowering up at the Digimon hovering just above his head - an IceBirdramon. Spritemon lay unconscious on his lap. Amy was crying, watching her sister holding on for her life, an utterly wrecked Otamamon lying limply in her arms. 

"What do you all have against us anyway?" sobbed Amy, "leave my sister alone!" 

"This isn't a fair fight!" snapped Nathan. 

After a not-very-restful sleep - having been woken in the middle of the night to battle a swarm of Mosquimon - and two other battles in the morning, the children and their Digimon were exhausted. Then, while trying to find food, they found these unfriendly Champion and Ultimate Digimon. Neither Spritemon or Otamamon had the energy to digivolve, putting up as much of a fight as they could in their weakened state. 

Floramon did manage to digivolve, but she was not in the best shape herself, hence the present difficulties. 

Emeramon suddenly reared up in the sky, lashing her tail up to whisk Adrienne out of another blast. 

"Air River!" 

"Fire Blizzard!" shouted IceBirdramon, suddenly. 

Emeramon could not avoid both attacks at once, and her leafy mane caught on fire as she was engulfed with the virus bird's attack. She glowed, and landed on the ground, a tired and charred Floramon. Adrienne was also thrown to the ground but landed more heavily. She didn't move. 

"Addy," sniffed Amy, "Addy, get up." 

She crawled over to her sister and nudged her. 

"If you don't get up, I'll tell Mom on you," said Amy. 

Adrienne grunted, but she was not conscious. AeroSeadramon laughed. 

   [1]: mailto:leto@nysa.cx



End file.
